And yes, I am one of them – nothing wrong in admitting that we look for divine intervention in times of distress. But..that’s for another day!
These days, most of the youngsters and “right wingers” look towards Narendra Modi as that savior. We see in him something that we probably lack collectively - a man who has the vision and the shoulders to carry our aspirations and lead the country out of the dark times.
From critics to supporters, all want an answer to the issues from the man – from agriculture to healthcare to industrial output to defence to the brick falling off from my neighbour’s wall! We feel all our answers lie in the head of this Gujarati who people love or loathe! But all this does say 1 thing, and that is that we understand we are in bad shape and need to be dug out. The first step to a solution is to accept that we have a problem at hand. May be not all of us think that we are staring at the darkest times in recent history.
For those who feel we have a problem, seem to have 1 more problem – that this ONE man will come with a magic wand and wish away all the problems and take India to heights that our founding fathers and saints saw our motherland at. Is that possible? Yes and No!
Our man has the ideas, the vision, the attitude and given the numbers would have the numbers to pull us out of the hole. Importantly, he has showcased all this in 1 state with huge results! This state has been unique, yes but then all states are uniquely unique. Gujarat always had a huge entrepreneurial class, but has had challenges in terms of water scarcity, infrastructure woes, polarization etc.
Plus, like it or not, the state has to fight the stigma of 2002 riots. That the state has had many more bloodier riots in past is conveniently forgotten but that is beside the point. But for now let us concentrate on some positives and out of box vision of our man in Gujarat:
- From a loss making electricity board to a profit making company. 24x7 electricity in all cities, towns, villages across state
- Vast and improved pucca road network for better maneuverability
- Realization of the vast potential of the longest coastline of the country
- Huge steps in promoting tourism – develop and market tourist destinations that existed for decades but were never considered for tourism
- Realize, accept and address the problem of Sex ratio and malnutrition, on a war footing
- Innovative ideas to help agriculture sector, help farmers with improved infrastructure and good advise
- Promote youth activities, stress on sports
- Huge efforts in the education sector – primary as well as university levels
- Focus on police reforms – still a long way to go but at least it has begun
- Vision on what the world wants and needs, focus energies in being proactive and in being ready for that next step/challenge
There are many more but am restricting myself to the above 10. Can these be repeated elsewhere? No. But yes, they can be replicated using the available resources and needs at those places!
Will that be easy? No! Will that be possible? Yes. He would need the numbers, support, luck and the political manipulations to even start working on replication of these ideas!
We are a complicated country with an even more complicated polity. We have a voter base that ranges from extremely gullible to depressingly cynical to menacingly divisive and polarizingly manipulative. How to overcome them, how to win them over is a fight for him and his party. All I know as a citizen is that in an era of cynicism our man talks of endless possibilities and inspires to realise them. In an era of cynicism he talks of hope he talks about what is positive. In an era of cynicism he talks of Hope. That is what makes him unique.
But then he is a human. He is no God who would come, wave his hand and cure all ills and put us ahead of all. As a favor to him and our own sake, let us not burden him with impossible expectations. He at best would be a facilitator to reach that ultimate goal – to dig ourselves out of a hole and progress to enable India lead the world.
We need his ideas and decisive leadership on the long route to greatness. But he doesn’t have a magic wand. He would have to do it the hard way, which would be the ideal way. It is this search for faux Gods in promising leaders that leads us into a mess! Keep it simple..keep it real!
Please let us not make a messiah out of him…messiahs end up on the cross. We need a Moses more than a Christ!
