It has been seven years PM Narendra Modi came into power, since then India got new hope of ‘Achhe Din’. On 30 May 2014 PM Modi took oath and India got into new era of transformation. By empowering culturally rooted Indians, reducing corruption & redefining the definition of Nationalism, PM Modi has ‘MODI’fied the face of India.
He is the only non-Congress prime minister to have won two consecutive majorities in Lok Sabha elections.
In the seven years as prime minister, Narendra Modi is credited to have introduced some long-awaited reforms in the country. However, with three years still remaining in his second term, his government faces a plethora of challenges as well.
First, I would list out PM Modi’s achievements during the past seven years.
GOODS AND SERVICES TAX
The Goods and Services Tax (GST) was in the pipeline for 17 years before it became a major tax reform in 2017. For long, India was seen as a non-friendly country for business owing to its complicated tax laws.
The GST subsumed 17 existing indirect taxes to make compliance of taxation laws by the business world simple. The rollout of GST through a special session of Parliament three years ago remains a major highlight of the Modi government.
INSOLVENCY AND BANKRUPTCY CODE
The link between failed businesses and the consequent banking ailment was long seen as a problem area for economy growth and policy making. The Modi government enacted the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code (IBC) law in 2016. The law was amended for the second time earlier this year to make it more attuned to ground realities.
It is described as the silver bullet to tackle India’s chronic problem of non-performing assets. Banks have begun to recover debts that were earlier thought to be irretrievable.
SWACHH BHARAT
Though it has its origin in the Nirmal Gram mission — under Raghuvansh Prasad Singh-led rural development ministry — of the Manmohan Singh government, the Swachh Bharat campaign is one of the big socio-political achievements of the Modi government.
PM Modi’s personal push in his speeches from the ramparts of the Red Fort and televised events has given the Swachh Bharat campaign a new dimension. He is the first prime minister to have successfully conveyed to the public that cleanliness has a direct correlation with their health status and economic well-being.
The toilet-construction programme under the Swachh Bharat campaign to make India an open-defecation free (ODF) country played a significant part in the Modi government being voted back to power with a greater majority.
THE CLEAN & HEALTHY KITCHEN
Another highlight of the government in the last seven years and the one that played an equal political role — besides the toilet scheme — in getting Narendra Modi back to the PMO is free distribution of the LPG cylinders.
It was done through the Ujjwala Yojana, under which women in villages get free one LPG cylinder connection per household. The scheme has been so popular that at the end of the last fiscal, it overshot its target of 8 crore LPG connection. Official data show that Ujjwala Yojana accounts for over 72 per cent growth in total domestic LPG connections in the country.
LEGAL & POLITICAL ACCOMPLISHMENTS
Ayodhya Dispute : An age-old dispute, to which the Hindu Muslim sentiments were much connected, the verdict of Supreme Court & soon followed by the construction dream of Ram Mandir of Every Hindu was ensured by laying foundation stone amid Corona pandemic.
Abrogation of Article 370: In perhaps the biggest and one of the most contentious decisions since 2014, the Modi government on August 5 revoked Article 370 to take away Jammu and Kashmir’s special status, and bifurcated the state into two union territories, Jammu and Kashmir, and Ladakh, that redrew the map and future of a region at the centre of a protracted militancy movement.
Fulfilling an electoral promise of the BJP less than 90 days after the Modi 2.0 government took power, Union Home Minister Amit Shah announced the decision in the Rajya Sabha, which approved both the resolution and the Jammu and Kashmir Reorganisation Bill. Both were passed by the Lok Sabha as well.
Balakot airstrike: Under immense pressure post the Pulwama terror attack, in which 40 CRPF jawans were killed on February 14, the Modi government gave the military a free hand to respond to the strike.
On February 26, the Indian Air Force’s Mirage-2000 fighter jets took off from various airfields in India. The fighter jets launched smart bombs that targeted Jaish-e-Mohammad’s largest terror facility, located in Balakot in Pakistan’s Kyber Pakhtunwa.
Pakistan retaliated on February 27 by attempting to target Indian military installations by sending its fighter jets into India. The Indian Air Force scrambled a pack of its Sukhoi Su-30 and MiG-21 fighter jets.
Anti-terror law: Amid the uproar, the Parliament on August 2 approved an amendment to the anti-terror law to give powers to the central government to designate an individual as a terrorist and seize his properties. While Lok Sabha had passed the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Amendment Bill, 2019 that seeks to amend the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, 1967 on July 24, Rajya Sabha approved it after rejecting an opposition-sponsored motion to send it to select committee. Replying to a debate on the amendment.
Triple Talaq Bill: Despite several hurdles, the NDA government finally managed to successfully turn the Triple Talaq Bill into an Act on July 30 when Parliament approved the bill that makes instant divorce a criminal offence. The contentious legislation was passed by Rajya Sabha following non-aligned BJD extending support and the NDA constituents JD-U and AIADMK walking out.
The practice of instant divorce by Muslim men is punishable by a jail term of up to three years. The Upper House passed the bill by 99 votes in favour and 84 against it.
Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA): In the biggest victory for the Modi government this year, Rajya Sabha on December 11 approved the most controversial Citizenship (Amendment) Bill, completing the legislative procedure for giving Indian citizenship to non-Muslim migrants from Pakistan, Afghanistan and Bangladesh.
To repeated questions from the opposition of Muslims being left out, he said Muslims from other countries have the right to apply for Indian citizenship as per existing rules. As per data, as many as 566 Muslims have been given citizenship.
Assam NRC: On August 31, the final list of updated NRC was released that excluded nearly 1.9 people in Assam. In the final draft of the NRC, out of 33 million applicants, 31.1 million were found to be eligible for inclusion in the updated NRC, and 1.9 million were excluded. The barred people approached the Foreigners’ Tribunal with an appeal against their non-inclusion. The Assam government assured that people who were not in the final list of the NRC would get legal aid.
National Population Register (NPR): Even as students, activists and locals were on the streets across the country against the Citizenship(Amendment) Act, the Union Cabinet on Tuesday announced that it has allocated around Rs 3,500 crore for updating National Population Register (NPR). The process shall commence from April next year and will be completed by September. NPR was first done in 2010 and was later updated in 2015 when it was linked with the Aadhaar. However, Home Ministry officials said, “at present, there is no proposal to create NRC in the country based on the NPR data”.
Corporate tax rate cut: To infuse fresh energy into the corporate sector, the government on September 20 slashed the income tax rate for companies by almost 10 percentage points to 25.17 per cent and offered a lower rate to 17.01 per cent for new manufacturing firms to boost economic growth rate from a six-year low by incentivising investments to help create jobs. Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said the reduction in tax rates has been done by promulgating an ordinance to an amendment to the Income Tax Act
The rate, a long-standing industry demand, was seen as one of the many reliefs for key sectors, including auto and FMCG.
The Farm Bill 2020: To ensure complete transformation of the agriculture sector, the modi leg government introduced the three-farm bill to empower & stabilize and commercialize the much traditional trade policy of Indian farming system.
Is giving option to the system of APMC, where a farmer traditionally trades his Agri-products. Where it abolishes the monopoly of few traders in the market & open up new avenues of trade to the farmer.
OTHER KEY DECISIONS TAKEN BY THE MODI GOVERNMENT
Storming out of RCEP: In a surprising move, India on November 4 decided to walk out of the biggest regional trade partnership the world could have seen. The Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) could have given — possibly it still can — almost unrestricted access of each other’s markets to the members.
Chief of Army Staff (CDS): Indian Army chief General Bipin Rawat was named India’s first Chief of Defence Staff on December 30, a day before he was to retire from service after completing a full three-year term as the Chief of Army Staff.
General Rawat is the first officer to hold the post of the Chief of Defence Staff.
Motor Vehicles (Amendment) Act: The Motor Vehicles (Amendment) Bill 2019 was passed by Parliament in July and its steep fines came into effect from September 1, though some states pushed it back saying people needed time to get acquainted with the enhanced penalties.
Digital India: In 2015, in order to ensure the government services are made available to citizens electronically by improved online infrastructure by making the country digitally empowered in the field of technology. Reported it has many the government to connect its citizens directly. It has also helped to curb corruption in the intermediate agencies.
Ban on Chinese apps: In the early faceoff between China and India, the Modi led government took some bold decisions to hit back at China, siting sovereignty & data security, India banned almost more than 80 Chinese apps.
No doubt, PM Naredra Modi known for his good governance, aggressive Leadership, strategical diplomacy in foreign affairs, is able to create a global impact of India while over coming challenges like Corona, China standoff.
Still three years to go, a common man has lot of expectations from single majority party. The most awaited one would be Uniform Civil Code which is & was in the manifesto of BJP.
The Author is Executive Member of BJP Executive Committee – Legal Cell Maharastra.
To infuse fresh energy into the corporate sector, the government on 20 September slashed the income tax rate for companies by almost 10 percentage points to 25.17 per cent and offered a lower rate to 17.01 per cent for new manufacturing firms to boost economic growth rate from a six-year low by incentivising investments to help create jobs. Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said that the reduction in tax rates has been done by promulgating an ordinance to an amendment to the Income Tax Act.