Beyond Nehru, 30 days of Modi: The most excellent, the great, the average and the scary!

Modi has completed a month! And there have been all kinds of things happening! And an analysis is most required since the hype and expectation around his becoming Prime Minister was exceptional; so every move, especially in the first few days, was being observed by the whole world with a lot of curiosity. So what has it been like? Well, one thing is sure, there has been nothing bad at all. Let us begin with the excellent!

The most excellent thing about Modi has been his intent and his most excellent speeches post becoming the PM. The way he addressed the Parliament with calm poise, a subtle sense of humour and ubiquitous confidence, gave the nation the much needed sense of pride that had gone totally missing over the past decade. The truth is that Gujarat has not been the only success story. Tamil Nadu too has been one; and to his immense credit, Modi, like a great statesman, was so humble about learning from the TN model. The most excellent has been his "toilets before temples" vision! His intent of bringing toilets, education, health and electricity to every Indian is what the Great Indian Dream was about in the book I co-authored with my father (Great Indian Dream: Restoring pride to a nation betrayed; Macmillan India)! So his intent, philosophy, and statesmanship have been to me beyond even Nehru's – the best India had seen previously. While Nehru had great macro-philosophy, Modi's thoughts are not only great but rooted with non-elitist reality and work ethics. Thus, while we all know where we reached with Nehruvian ethics, as of today I will give Modi a genuine chance of far greater success and more. That's how excellent he has been in his presentation.

Now for the great. Amongst this, have been his steps to empower bureaucrats and shake them up. While many say that bureaucrats are upset at the 6-day weeks and strict time discipline, I think the reality is to the contrary. Based on my interactions with some of the bureaucrats, I feel a new sense of pride has been restored in them. Many always wanted to work; however, in the environment of being subservient to the ministers, they had got used to a life of red-tapism. Now, they feel they can deliver and bring back the due respect to their jobs. Amongst the great also has been Modi's intent to get back clean governance. The good has been that ministers can no more entertain businessmen and their coterie and have to communicate with them through emails; and thus, five-star hotels in Delhi suddenly have all rooms available since there are no business delegations being entertained in the corridors of power in Delhi. The good has been the cleaning up of the file culture with clean tables, no files, no garbage in political corridors. Modi is clear that if the private sector can run without piles of files falling all over from all staircases, so can the government. And that's great!

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