The network is down

In the past few days I have been listening to serial drones of one minister after another. After shunning journalists for the past year as if they were rabid dogs, suddenly the charming battissi is on display. The Big Boss has himself directed them to talk about their achievements. The order is the exact reverse of the missive sent several times in the course of the past year to any minister, or party leader, who was seen to be getting friendly with probing scribes. The friendly reach-out is part of the media blitzkrieg because Prime Minister Narendra Modi is unlikely to address a press conference to mark the first anniversary of this government.

As part of his own contribution to the anniversary publicity drive, Mr Modi has granted a few interviews already — contours of which were pre-discussed in all probability and later embellished by facts — and may choose to grant a couple more. He is also to address a public gathering, like the one scheduled in the village in Mathura where Deendayal Upadhyaya was born. And finally, Mr Modi is sure to tweet a few messages and upload a selfie or two on the social media.

In answers to questions put to the ministers in one interview after another, two main points have emerged. Firstly, that the Bharatiya Janata Party-led government somewhat lost the battle of perception because it failed to communicate its achievements properly. And secondly, appraisal of the government’s actions and achievements thus far should factor in the fact that it has been in office for just one year. That these two points are being made repeatedly suggests that the Modi government has lost the script somewhat. It is no coincidence that the last few weeks before the launch of the anniversary celebrations witnessed resurgence of the Opposition, especially the Congress and its “reluctant leader”, Rahul Gandhi.

To begin with, let us take the two admissions. If an ace communicator like Mr Modi concedes, through team members, that his government failed in conveying to people what it had achieved, then there is a problem. That this has happened despite the continuity of the publicity apparatus suggests that the role and relevance of the hi-tech communication strategy during the electoral campaign had been grossly overestimated. The communication mechanism failed because even now in a country like India, the good or bad is spread by oral means. Success stories of the government have to be carried to neighbouring chai stalls in the morning and not delivered on tablets and computers.

To be able to take these stories to the lowest common denominators of society, one requires enthusiastic foot soldiers and not Ivy League-trained personnel. The foot soldiers are absent because the strategy of over-centralisation in the government and party has resulted in a disconnect with the cadre. Ordinary party workers need to have stakes in the government to remain enthusiastic like they were during the election campaign. It is not a matter of giving crumbs or a share of power, like middle-class neo-converts to the Modi-fold expected. When ministers appear to be jobless and are treated with disdain, it causes lack of enthusiasm to seep down.

Mr Modi erred by thinking that his Cabinet colleagues and senior party leaders were political pygmies like his colleagues in Gujarat. The so-called Gujarat model has not worked either in governance, running the party or in decision-making. Mr Modi needs to keep in mind that his government in Gujarat could circumvent several indicting reports of the Comptroller and Auditor-General of India, but this would not be possible now. If the government claims that it pursues transparent policies, single-window form of governance will come for sharp scrutiny by regulatory bodies and public watchdogs.

One of the major claims in the past few days, as reiterated by finance minister Arun Jaitley, is that the word “corruption” has been removed from the political dictionary of India. In trips outside the country, Mr Modi discontinued taking a media team. However, select corporates continue to be not just part of the entourage but also stay in the same hotel as him. If that is not giving access to the corporate world, then I wonder what providing access means.

While government pledges commitment to e-governance and e-auction, I wonder about the purpose of proximity with a few corporates. Mr Modi as chief minister used to be accompanied by businessmen on foreign trips. In several of them, key projects were verbally cleared by Mr Modi after personal interactions arranged by senior bureaucrats. There is no evidence now of such deals being struck similarly, but the denial of access to media opens doors of suspicion.

Middle-ranking corporates are surely facing a problem of access to government. A danger lurks around — this situation is ripe for the rise of the middleman, always an integral part of the Indian system. For the moment they have been marginalised, but sooner or later new strategies will be devised and the government will have to find means to counter them. Moreover, corruption has not been a feature of any government in its first year. Problems set in when the wheeler-dealers learn the art of ploughing the system.

The failure to secure a “distinction” in its first appraisal report is Mr Modi’s personal failure and not an indictment of government. A flamboyant campaigner needs to shed ostentation and govern with humility and diligence to go down in history as an able administrator. For the entire year, this government exhibited pompous self-righteousness and that has been its undoing. Arrogance does not pay and humility has to be the order of the day. For too long Mr Modi succeeded by “fixing” things — be it in Gujarat, during the campaign or in his first year as Prime Minister. The strategy is beginning to come unstuck. Sooner or later, the selfie will become the cause of a self-goal.

The writer is the author of Narendra Modi: The Man, the Times