Promises galore, but how much can Centre deliver?

OGati Shakti and National Hydrogen Mission were the major announcements from the Red Fort, but no timelines were indicated

n Sunday, India marked the end of 74 years since independence, and the start of the 75th year. Not long after Prime Minister Narendra Modi took office in 2014, his government announced housing for all by the time the 75th year was completed. That’s only a year from now but nothing has been heard on the subject for long. The housing minister at the time was M. Venkaiah Naidu, the VicePresident. He too may have forgotten about what he had said to Parliament in that regard. That’s what the passage of time does to politicians. There was another policy propaganda in Mr Modi’s early years that was frequently adverted to — the doubling of farmers’ incomes in the country. That promise has also not been attended to. And yet, the PM rained more promises on Independence Day this year.

Gati Shakti and National Hydrogen Mission were the major announcements from the Red Fort, but no timelines were indicated. Therefore, it is hard to see how things go. The former, in Mr Modi’s words, is in the nature of an infrastructure master plan that will “break transport silos”. The approach is to be “holistic”, which has emerged as the PM’s mantra for some years. But we don’t know what that means in concrete terms, though the PM did indicate that one lakh crore rupees will be spent, providing jobs to lakhs of young people. To all appearances this seems a laudable enterprise provided it is not a pie in the sky. The Hydrogen Mission will give us green hydrogen. This too sounds like a good idea, whatever green hydrogen is. But it sounds good. So, let’s accept it at face value.

The PM dwelt on athletics and the recent Olympic games, not failing to mention that our girls and boys did very well indeed. That’s true enough though only seven medals were won. The point, however, was to show that Mr Modi is a sports lover, an aspect so far obscured from view. After finishing his very long speech — some 90 minutes on a sweltering morning — he took the trouble to meet the Olympians and also NCC cadets. The PM was obviously intent on connecting with the youth.

Much time was also spent in the speech on farmers, especially to note that 80 per cent of our farmers own less than two hectares of land. He proposed that previous governments did not think about this segment but his government had raised the MSP. It is best that farmers themselves make an appraisal.

Mr Modi ended his address with a poem of sorts in Hindi that he probably composed, and then went on to declaim with flair. It went something like: “This is the moment, the right moment, our precious moment!” He also added to the flavour of the “Sabka saath, sabka vikas” slogan, thinking it might have become a cliché. The addition is “sabka prayas”. How wonderfully true. The country does need everyone to put their shoulder to the wheel.