The Narendra Modi government 2.0 completes one year on May 30. When the first year of Modi 1.0 had completed in 2015, the Bharatiya Janata Party had celebrated the occasion as a five-day Jan Kalyan Parv. The first anniversary of Modi 2.0 is comparatively sober because of the Covid-19 pandemic, but the BJP has planned virtual rallies and outreach programmes to publicise the achievements of Modi 2.0. The first year of the Modi 2.0 government looked like it was all about fulfilling manifesto promises but the government was also criticised on the economic front as the finance ministry of both Modi 1.0 and 2.0 have seemingly not being able to make efficient economic decisions.
General Secretary of the Virat Hindustan Sangam (VHS), Assam/Northeast, Tony Das talking to G Plus said, “Modi 2.0 has been all about implementing the manifesto and they have done well in fulfilling some promises. But the government has failed on the economic front.” VHS is a pro-BJP organisation and follows the same ideology of Hindutva.
Das, expressing his criticism about the finance ministry of Narendra Modi’s government, said that even during the recently announced schemes by the finance ministry, it was all about announcing loans to the citizens. “People are already in debt, how much more they should take?” questioned Das adding that any major economic decision taken by Modi’s government has never been implemented properly and the country has not benefitted from the same.
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Talking about fulfilling manifesto promises, Das said that abrogation of Article 370 which stripped off the special status enjoyed by the people of Jammu & Kashmir was a massive success in favour of the saffron party. In a smart move, the party militarised the state and removed the article 370. The second most talked-about bill passed was the Triple Talaq Bill. The bill which was rejected by the Rajya Sabha in 2018 got the nod of the Upper House in this session. This bill seeks to ban the practice of instant Triple Talaq. This bill recognises the declaration of Triple Talaq as a cognizable offence, which may attract three years’ imprisonment with a fine.
Similarly, Modi 2.0 passed the Citizenship (Amendment) Act, 2019 on 11th December 2019. It amended the Citizenship Act, 1955 by providing a path to Indian citizenship for illegal migrants of Hindu, Sikh, Buddhist, Jain, Parsi, and Christian religious minorities, who had fled persecution from Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan before December 2014. Muslims from those countries were not given such eligibility.
All these bills were promises which were made by the BJP in the party manifesto before the 2019 Lok Sabha polls and the Centre, especially the home ministry headed by Amit Shah, was seen acting strategically to get these bills passed.
The first Parliament session of Modi 2.0 scripted history with the highest number of bills passed in six decades.
Other than following the BJP manifesto, it is alleged that the government has done nothing out of the box. Senior journalist and activist Manjit Mahanta said, “They have done nothing.”
While the Ram Mandir victory in the Supreme Court was a judicial decision, the saffron party promoted the victory as a decision made by the government. Many saffron party units, during Modi’s first tenure, were upset because the Ram Mandir decision was pending. The Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) even split up with Pravin Togodia floating another Hindu organisation after leaving VHP on the issue of Ram Janmabhumi. Therefore, the Modi.20 government took all the credit amongst all the saffron units of the country.
The RTI (Amendment) Bill, 2019 was also passed during the first year amending the RTI Act, 2005. On July 29, the Lok Sabha passed the contentious National Medical Commission Bill, 2019. The BJP called it one of the most significant reforms that will end ‘inspector raj’ in the medical education sector.
Well, all these bills were passed and promises made but the next years to come will explain if the reformed law will be implemented properly as implementation of schemes and bills by the government are always questioned. Demonetisation and GST are some of the decisions taken by the Modi 1.0 government but their implementation was always criticised. The Citizenship (Amendment) Act, 2019 saw nationwide opposition and protests, but its implementation is still confusing.