Undone by himself: How Slogan-Murugan proved his critics right

Now as he approaches one year in office, the PM is starting to face rumbles of discontent, and not just from the usual suspects. Prominent voices who had cheered his ascent and declared him the much-needed antidote for a UPA-plagued nation are beginning to worry, and loudly so.

Explanations for the Modi sarkaar's 'policy paralysis' -- as it is now dubbed -- abound in the op-ed pages. It’s abundantly clear, however, that PM Modi's problems of governance have their roots in the very same issues that bedeviled Candidate Modi. The euphoria of the sweeping electoral victory eclipsed them for a while, but clearly did not nullify his inherent disadvantages.

Petty in pink (well, saffron): Modi as PM has tried to project a more statesmanlike persona than the Candidate Modi who egged mammoth crowds on with jabs at shehzaada and Madam (deliciously drawn out for effect). Modi wants to put the old vindictive image behind him at least during photo-ops. L K Advani might not speak at the BJP National Enclave but he’s seen on stage and -- as a BJP official proudly told the media -- even spotted clapping during Modi’s speech. But that old pettiness slips out at other moments, and to the detriment of his government.

There were many ways to honour Atal Behari Vajpayee without trying to shoehorn Good Governance Day on top of Christmas. It caused an entirely unnecessary row and forced the government to defend itself against charges of being the Hindutva Grinch who tried to steal Christmas. Modi has won the election and won it convincingly, but it’s still hard for him to stay gracious in victory. If Candidate Modi was snidely calling the press “news traders” now PM Modi cannot resist a broadbrush dig at activists as “five star activists” as if only Modi can stay a humble “sevak” of the people despite wearing his name all over that exorbitant pin-striped suit.

India is not Gujarat: Narendra Modi is realizing this every day as the Prime Minister. A state that’s much more homogeneous was easier to bend to Modi’s will. Ruling India is a bit more like herding cats. Modi had made it sound as if every problem could be solved by a pithy acronym. But as T C A Srinivasa-Raghavan points out in the Business Standard (http://www.business-standard.com/article/opinion/t-c-a-srinivasa-raghavan-the-passing-of-slogan-murugan-115040300924_1.html) even his “name for him last year – Slogan Murugan – has worn thin now. Only the slow is left, the guns having fallen silent.”

As a result, in the place of bold new policy measures, Modi is tomtomming increasingly bizarre examples of his leadership. As when he told a Jat delegation that he would consider their appeal for OBC benefits if they would in return stop female feticide. “But what did not seem to occur to anybody, least of all to the prime minister, was the shockingly unethical implications of such a bargain - the promise not to kill female foetuses and murder baby girls was extracted in exchange for the hope of a restored quota ” writes The Telegraph  condemning the “immoral logic of such a bargain”.But more than anything else the offer indicates the desperation of a government that is scraping the bottom of the barrel, dressing up bargain basement barter as public policy leadership.

Waiting on the PMO. The biggest problem with the Modi government is that it has always been built around an image of him as the Supreme Authority of Gujarat. And Modi has been loath to puncture that hype. As Srinivasa-Raghavan points out, he has tried to create via his PMO not just “mere old-fashioned centralization” but a “top down execution system… in which ministers carry out instructions from on high.”

To his supporters, that authoritarian streak fostered hopes for efficiency and fast results. A one-track window to double digit growth. But in practice, centralisation -- as epitomised by the all-powerful Prime Minister's Office -- has proved to be bit of a disaster. The man who as a candidate promised the country less government and more governance is now finding out the hard way that less of one does not necessarily mean more of the other.

Srivastava points out that the number of vacancies at the director and joint secretary level have crossed 80, the Cabinet Appointments Committee has been rendered redundant and "a hyperactive PMO seems to have put off a section of bureaucrats, who are now reluctant to leave states and move to the Centre in a reversal of the earlier trend of bureaucrats lobbying for central deputation.”

That single track window has proved instead to be a roadblock to progress.