Prime Minister Narendra Modi has set a new benchmark in reforms and governance for the world to emulate and has ably steered India to be one of the fastest growing economies of the world—stable and secure. He has a stellar status amongst the statesmen of the world today and is a true role model. His comments that “today’s era is not the era for war” have been quoted by many Heads of States. Today, he is probably the only world leader who is in the position to speak to the Russian President and the President of Ukraine at the same time. Due to his towering leadership, there has been unprecedented strengthening in India’s voice across the globe.
Even the IMF commented that India deserves to be called a bright spot “on this otherwise dark horizon because it has been a fast growing economy, even during these difficult times, but most importantly, this growth is underpinned by structural reforms.”
Since assuming office in 2014, Prime Minister Narender Modi has ensured “India first” in every policy formulation. The last eight years have witnessed a great leap in economic reforms, healthcare, serving the poor, nari shakti, ease of doing business, promoting a tech-driven India, environment and sustainability and an overall growth in all sectors, coupled with a successful foreign policy.
It has only been due to the inspirational vision, wisdom and sterling leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi that the security scenario in the country has improved dramatically. On the security front, Modi 2.0 envisions transformation of India into a new strong India—strong, secure, prosperous and invincible—an atmanirbhar bharat, sashakt bharat, swabhiman bharat and an ekatma bharat. The creation of the two Union Territories of J&K and Ladakh has been the greatest momentous achievement since Independence. With government priority on development for the people, the two UTs are witnessing a spate of unhindered development as never before. Prior to this, terrorism had devastated the state as over 41,500 persons were killed between 1989 of 2019. Invisible enemies fighting uncivilised proxy wars had threatened democracy in J&K. The repudiation of Article 370 and 35A has heralded a new dawn of empowerment, equity and development. This is evident by the recent initiatives of the government in empowering grassroots institutions, accelerating development, building infrastructure, reinforcing governance, generating employment, broadening social inclusion and promoting growth.
There has been zero tolerance to terrorism with appropriate responses; sponsors of terror have been globally isolated and India has made terrorism a global issue. In the North-East region, the government followed a multi-pronged strategy to effectively deal with insurgent and militant activities. As a result, several outfits have entered into suspension of operations agreements and memorandum of settlements and dissolved themselves.
To deal with the Left-wing extremism, the Modi government has adopted an integrated and holistic approach. The developmental outreach by the Government of India has seen an increasingly large number of LWE cadres shunning the path of violence and returning to the mainstream.
Despite a large magnitude of border management concerns, security has been tightened on all borders through comprehensive integrated border management systems—be it border outposts, border fencing, border lighting, mobile towers and use of technology at the border. It was only under PM Modi that infrastructure strengthening on the India-China border became a national priority. Coming to the disaster front, it is only PM Modi who has strengthened our response to disaster in saving lives and livelihood.
An in-depth study on various aspects and areas of security challenges will convince all as to how patriotically the Modi government has kept the citizen—who is an equal stakeholder in national security—secure from all kinds of threats, external and internal. These last eight years have witnessed a paradigm shift in public service delivery and the implementation of government schemes and infrastructure projects. The global Covid-19 pandemic since 2020 had a severe economic fallout and jolted all countries across the globe. While many economies continue to struggle with sluggish economic growth and record-breaking inflation, India has been recognized by IMF and World Bank, to be one of the fastest-growing countries in the world. The government’s Aatmanirbhar Bharat plan gave the much-needed impetus to economic growth. The dynamic FDI policy has made India the preferred global destination for investment. Under PM Modi’s leadership, India is taking giant strides on all fronts. This spirit of a “New Strong India” is reflected in our rapidly rising defence production and surge in exports.
PM Modi’s active monitoring has made the infrastructure turnaround possible—be it highway construction, rapid increase in the construction of rural roads, a massive capacity expansion in the railways and metro rail in the last eight years or building or operationalising 66 airports and ensuring air connectivity to innumerable tier-2 and tier-3 cities. Digital connectivity and IT infrastructure have become critical determinants of our economic growth.
The Modi government has taken a remarkable life cycle based approach towards women empowerment. Since 2014, Indian diaspora, located across the world, has felt assured that PM Modi is always looking out for their safety and well-being. The National Education Policy (NEP) is bringing a paradigm shift in the Indian education system through much needed and long pending reforms in school and higher education.
India has successfully rolled out the world’s largest vaccination drive ever and supplied medical equipment and vaccines to innumerable nations. Over the last eight years, India has emerged as a global leader in the fight against climate change. From negotiations over global climate change deals to the adoption of renewable energy, India is leading international efforts for environmental protection. It is these policies of PM Modi on each front that have increased the stability in the country and region—internally and externally, and made India an example for the world to follow.
The author is a former Chairman, Haryana Public Service Commission.