A grand wish list
- Hueiyen Lanpao Editorial :: June 10, 2014 -

Addressing the first joint session of the Parliament after the recent elections to the 16th Lok Sabha on Monday, President Pranab Mukherjee has listed out the primary goals set out to achieve by the newly sworn in Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led NDA Government.

From invoking the mantra of 'minimum government, maximum governance' to the use of half-a-dozen slogans like, 'Sabka Saath, Sabka vikas', 'Ek Bharat – Shrestha Bharat', etc, which have already made popular by Narendra Modi during his election campaign, one may wonder whether the Congress nominated President Pranab Mukherjee was speaking in the language of Narendra Modi and in his own words.

Leaving aside this argument for the political analysts and watchers, we feel that the roadmap of the new Government that has emerged from the during his 50-minute long speech delivered by the President deserves to have a look.

From the assurance of giving top priority in containing food inflation to reviving the economy through encouragement of FDI in sectors for creating more jobs, from curbing infiltration in north-east to completion of all pending 'fencing work' along the Northeast border; and from sitting up IITs and IIMs in every state to launching "Beti Bachao, Beti Badhao" (save girl child, grow girl child) campaign, from the policy of 'zero tolerance' for violence against women to making all minorities equal partners in growth and development, from launching of National National e-Governance plan to providing Wifi Zones in all critical public areas in the next 5 years and then the commitment of giving pucca (brick and cemented) houses with 24X7 electricity, water connection and toilet facilities to all people by 2020, the listed agenda is indeed exhaustive, touching upon almost everything.

Of course, the real competence of Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led NDA Government at the Centre could not be judged at the moment just by looking at this exhaustive agenda, which is nothing more than a mere grand wish list.

First of all, one has to wait till unveiling of the budget by Finance Minister Arun Jaitley next month to get to know any idea about whether there is any concrete foundation for fulfilling the agenda listed out by the new Government, because absence of a solid foundation before taking up any developmental plans or schemes that were announced from time to time has been main reason for lack of progress or slow pace of development in the country for a long time now.

So, a close study of the first budget of the new Government only revealed what is in store for realising the grand wish list of the new Government which has come to power on the promise of growth and development in the world’s most populous democracy.

Moreover, taking over the reins of power at the Centre at a time when the financial position of the country could be best described as sickly with resource constraints glaring from all sides, what kind of innovative funding system that Modi and his team are going to adopt to address the problem of resource constraint is something what we should watch out for to see whether Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Council of Ministers have the real magic power to overcome the challenges before the people.

The bottom line is, even for a good start with a grand wish list, it is the end result that will be counted and remembered ultimately.