The Modi government needs its ‘doer’ avatar back

There is many a slip between a signed paper and action. The Narendra Modi government has taken some of the toughest decisions and brought some of the boldest reforms since Independence, but the implementation gap has been widening lately.

And that has been silently denting the government’s clear-headed, ruthless doer image as much as the COVID-19 crisis, or the failure to deal with a strong hand the barbaric post-poll massacre of BJP workers in Bengal or the bullying by Big Tech. Its own support base has started questioning if it has become too image-conscious and timid to walk the talk.

Take for instance the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA). It was notified on 12 December, 2019, and has come into force from 10 January, 2020.

But the rules under the Act are still under preparation. The Committees on Subordinate Legislation, Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha granted an extension of time up to 9 April, 2021, and then 9 August, 2021 to frame these rules. Then in May, the Modi government asked for an extension for the third time from Parliament for framing the CAA rules on account of the Covid pandemic.

Implementation of CAA could have been a gamechanger in Bengal, especially among the Matua and other communities, and tempering it down with Sixth Schedule (to ensure the constitutional safeguard of the linguistic, cultural, social identity and heritage) in Assam would not have harmed its poll prospects there as well.

During the Bengal poll campaign, Union home minister Amit Shah said that the process of granting Indian citizenship to refugees under the CAA would begin once the process of COVID-19 vaccination ended.

Instead, the Centre has adopted a micro approach by so far empowering 29 districts in states like Gujarat, Chhattisgarh, Rajasthan, Haryana and Punjab to grant citizenship to persecuted minorities from Pakistan, Afghanistan and Bangladesh.

Similarly, after passing a pioneering legislation on economic-status based quota, the Centre seems to have put the ball in the states’ court.

The Constitution 103rd Amendment Act, 2019 allows for a 10 percent reservation for economically weaker sections (EWS). It fills the void that exclusively caste-based quotas created. It brings hope for the desperately poor from the forward castes as well.

But when it comes to implementation in the states, the Centre told the Supreme Court on 7 January, 2020, that it is up to the states to implement it.

“Whether or not [to] provide reservation to EWS of society for appointment in state government jobs and for admission to state government educational institutions as per the newly inserted provisions of Article 15(6) and Article 16(6) of the Constitution is to be decided by the concerned state government,” the Modi government said in an affidavit.

Similarly, the Centre allowed protests by arthiyas or middlemen of primarily just one state, Punjab, to overwhelm and derail the progressive new farm laws which it passed in Parliament. It has offered a 18-month moratorium on its implementation to SUV-driving, rich ‘farmers’ squatting on crucial highways on Delhi’s doorstep.

The message going out from Shaheen Bagh protests and the violent rampage and riots that came before and after, or the Republic Day marauding of Delhi by goons masquerading as farmers, is that Modi’s famed toughness may just be a carefully manicured myth. That the Achilles from Gujarat after all has a heel, that he has become risk-averse about his image, and it is possible to derail any government move by loud, media-fuelled and often viscerally violent protests.

Modi is known to wait patiently for very long before he pounces. One only hopes it is such a phase. He has the immense task of pulling the nation and its economy out of COVID-19 and putting back on course the civilisational agenda people trust him with. An image of vulnerability and implementation-shyness may not help.