“We Have Chosen A Difficult Path”: Seven Takeaways From Modi’s Defence Of His Government’s Policies

Prime Minister Narendra Modi delivered a passionate speech yesterday (4 October) defending his government’s policies and track record. The Prime Minister and his government have been facing strong criticism after the Central Statistics Office (CSO) released data last month showing a slowdown in economic growth to 5.7 per cent in the first quarter of the 2017-18 fiscal year.

In his speech, Prime Minister Modi took on his critics, former Bharatiya Janata Party supporters-turned-sourpusses and economic experts who keep shifting goalposts depending on which parameters show the government in poor light. He listed his government’s achievements in the last three years, pointed to the mess he inherited in 2014 and spoke about how he has managed to take the economy out of a state of policy paralysis, strengthened the fundamentals of the economy and delivered on developing infrastructure at rapid pace.

Here are some key takeaways from his speech:

1. For Modi, fight against black money and corruption is paramount.

Prime Minister Modi said one dirty fish could spoil the whole pond. Similarly, there are bad apples in the country who undermine the nation’s reputation and system, he said.

Modi listed a number of steps his government had taken to remove such people from the system and the institutions – starting from setting up a Special Investigation Team (SIT), preparing the ground for the Black Money Act to bring back money from abroad, inking tax treaties with various countries, passing the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code (IBC) and the Benami Property Act, the last of which had been stuck for the last 28 years, announcing demonetisation and introducing the goods and services tax (GST), which was also pending for years.

As a result of the government’s initiatives, the cash-to-GDP ratio has come down from 12 per cent before 8 November last year, to 9 per cent now, he pointed out. Today, people think 50 times before dealing in black money, he said.

The Prime Minister’s message was clear – in this changing economy, a premium will be put on honesty. Interests of the honest will be protected, and the era of dishonesty, both in governance and business, will be over.

Assuring the businesses that recently made the switch from the informal sector to the formal and are afraid that their past records will now come under scrutiny, he said they don’t have to worry as they will not be harassed. Previous governments may have done this, he said, “but to stop you from coming into mainstream because of such reasons - there can’t be a bigger sin.”

“I welcome you now, leave the old things behind and do not be worried. I am with you in the future,” he added.

Modi said corruption and black money are the two factors that the poor are most harmed by. Listing the benefits of demonetisation, he said that the exercise had helped unearth three lakh firms which were of a suspect nature and so consequently, the registration of more than two lakh of them had been cancelled. He said that due to GST, 19 lakh new people had entered the tax system.

Clearly, Prime Minister Modi sees both demonetisation and GST as important instruments in his fight against black money and his mission of formalisation of the economy.

2. The Shalyas of the world need to be ignored as their only purpose is to spread negativity.

Taking a shot at his critics like Arun Shourie and Yashwant Sinha, Prime Minister Modi (the quintessential master of symbolism that he is) compared them to Shalya – Karna’s charioteer in the Mahabharata who used to discourage everyone he saw on the battlefield and spread pessimism all around.

Shalya is not just a person; it’s a mindset, he emphasised.

Modi said these kinds of people gained happiness by spreading hopelessness and got a good night’s sleep from doing it. For them, slowdown in one quarter has proved to be perfect fodder. He warned that it is important to identify such people who like data when it is favourable to them and when it is unfavourable, they point fingers saying the process, the institutions or the people in charge were wrong.

When CSO released data showing growth at 7.4 per cent, these same people rejected it saying ground reality was different. It wasn’t in accordance with their Shalya mindset, Modi said, taking a jibe at his critics. “The institution wasn’t right, the methodology was wrong, they say, but as soon as the growth decelerated to 6.1 and 5.7 in last two quarters, they started loving data,” he added.

3. Don’t listen to politically motivated “experts” who change goalposts depending on which parameters are unfavourable to the government.

Prime Minister Modi reminded people of the economic environment in the last years of the previous government, when increase in the inflation rate, fiscal deficit, current account deficit and even interest rate made more headlines than the rise in growth rate. He noted that for some people, all these parameters which showed that the country was headed in the wrong direction, were good at the time, but now that the numbers had improved, the economists had closed their eyes and couldn’t even see the writing on the wall.

Inflation had come down from over 10 per cent to 2.5 per cent, current account deficit from over 4 per cent to below 1 per cent and, at the same time, fiscal deficit had reduced and foreign investors were doing record investment, Modi pointed out.

“Our foreign exchange reserve has grown from 30,000 crore to 40,000 crore. This improvement, confidence in economy don’t have any merit in their views. Hence, it is time for the country to think whether they are serving country’s cause or some political one,” he added.

4. Modi acknowledged that there is a problem, but he sees signs of recovery already and hence thinks there is no need to panic.

Recognising the slowdown in economic growth, Modi said the government is committed to and capable of reversing this trend. “Many informed people have expressed confidence that the economy’s fundamentals are strong. We have taken many important decisions related to reforms and this process is underway,” he said.

Modi also promised that the country’s financial stability will be maintained and his government will do everything that’s needed to improve investment and increase the growth rate.

Painting an optimistic picture of the future, Modi said the growth rate will bounce back to normal in no time. The Reserve Bank of India, he said, had also projected that the growth rate will rise to 7.7 per cent in the coming quarters.

Modi specifically mentioned micro, small and medium enterprises, export sector or those part of the non-formal economy – these have been most impacted by demonetisation and GST. He assured that if due to structural reforms some sectors were in need of help, the government was alert to their concerns.

Similarly, on GST, he assured that feedback was being taken and said he had asked the GST Council to do a complete review so that wherever there was a problem, be it with traders, technology, filling forms, etc., it would be reviewed and all stakeholders would come together and make changes wherever needed.

“I want to assure the traders that we are not averse to change and never claim exclusive right to all knowledge but we are trying to go in the right direction. Whatever is the experience of three months, based on that, whatever improvement is needed, we are with you,” he said.

However, Modi pointed out that there was no need for panic as there were already signs of recovery – commercial vehicle sales recorded a growth of 23 per cent, two-wheeler vehicles by 14 per cent; domestic air traffic grew by 14 per cent last month, international air freight traffic by around 16 per cent; telephone subscribers increased by 14 per cent. These indicators pointed towards growth in demand, he said.

Even indicators related to rural demand grew; tractor sales, for instance, rose by 34 per cent. He noted further that PMI Manufacturing Index Expansion Mode was showing that Future Output Index had crossed 60 and recent data showed how coal, power, steel and natural gas production were also recording strong growth.

Pointing to growth in personal loan disbursal, loans by housing finance companies and non-banking finance companies, investment in capital markets in mutual fund and insurance, and companies mobilising over Rs 25,000 crore in the first six months of this year, when last year the total amount stood at Rs 29,000 crore, over 45,000 crore investment in non-financial entities through corporate bond and private placement in just four months, Modi said that these figures show that financing was not limited to bank loans alone, and its base was widening.

5. What Modi says he has done for the middle class.

Prime Minister Modi pointed out that earlier an LED light bulb cost around Rs 350, but because of his government’s Ujala scheme, the price had come down to Rs 40-50. If 26 crore LED bulbs that have been distributed were considered, then the middle class and lower-middle class have saved Rs 7,000 crore directly and over Rs 14,000 crore by using those bulbs in yearly power bill savings, he estimated.

Further, he pointed out that municipalities had also saved Rs 10,000-15,000 crore on electricity due to installation of these bulbs as street lights. Now, these local bodies had the ability to spend the saved money on other facilities, he said.

Modi also said that his government was the first one to reduce home loan rates so that the middle class could build homes of their own.

6. Modi’s governance is about empowerment, not freebies.

Prime Minister Modi said he had not indulged in lazy distributional welfare, which is the standard response in politics, wherein you distribute freebies whenever there are elections coming up. Rather, he said, he has chosen a difficult path, that of empowerment of people, by opting for direct benefit transfer, thereby eliminating the middlemen because of which bhootiya (ghost) beneficiaries had been weeded out. That’s why he has had to face so much criticism from vested interests, he said.

7. When it comes to good governance (and especially infrastructure), there is no alternative.

The Prime Minister reminded people of how the country was branded as one of the “Fragile Five” economies and how the previous government had been trapped in a state of policy paralysis. His government, he claimed, had taken the country out of that state and played the role of policy maker and policy implementer.

The Prime Minister also talked about the impressive strides his government had made in the last three years on the infrastructure front. Only 25,316km length road was constructed under Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana in 2013-14, which then jumped to 47,447km in 2016-17.

In 2013-14, 3,620km of national highways were awarded, which increased to 15,948km in 2016-17. Under UPA, the rate of road construction was 4,260km in 2013-14, which in 2016-17 more than doubled to 8,231km.

New railway lines were laid at the rate of 360km in 2013-14, which has now almost tripled to 953km. The doubling of rail lines had improved from 500km in 2013-14 to 882km in 2016-17. The total construction in railways had jumped from 1,610km to 2,855km. Investment for construction of houses under JNNURM was merely Rs 15,000 crore in 2013-14, which now towers at Rs 153,000 crore – a massive 10-time jump.