The next most important decision that was taken during NDA I is demonetization. The citizens of the country were pretty happy with the move as they believed that the withdrawal of higher currency notes will reduce black money. They exhibited high patience levels when they had to stand for 2-3 hours in the queue to get their chance to withdraw money from ATMs. With all such strategies Modi has taken the hopes to a different level. But things have started turning around since 2017. With no news of anyone being arrested in relation to black money or any money being seized, people have realized that the implementation of demonetization was a disaster. Many incidents and failures have followed that which have started nailing down the hopes.
Narendra Modi’s hastened decision on a mid-night to appoint Rakesh Asthana even after the director of CBI Alok Verma objected that, is the first one to talk about. Rakesh Asthana’s relation with Narendra Modi goes back long way. As per many media channels, he was the one who made the investigation team change track to ensure there is no stain on the government in the Godhra train incident which happened in Gujarat in 2002. There were also allegations that he was promoted ahead of many senior officers just because of his intimacy with the ruling party leaders in Gujarat. The second incident is the deliberate rescheduling of media interaction to announce the poll dates for Rajasthan by the Election Commission of India. On the scheduled day, the election commission was supposed to announce at 12 noon but that was done at 3 PM just to accommodate announcement of sops by the prime minister at a rally at 1 PM in Rajasthan.
Elections in Andhra Pradesh have made to the headlines due to the outrage of the Telugu Desam Party leaders on the sudden transfers of Election Commissioner, Intelligence Director General and Chief Secretary of the state. BJP is trying to get hold on AP since long, that didn’t happen due to the strong leadership of Chandrababu Naidu. So they wanted to have a chief minister who can help them build their cadre or who will be in agreement to whatever they say. As soon as YSRCP complained about an officer, they received the transfer orders from the central government. Not just this, the malfunctioning of EVMs in over 20 polling booths for 3-4 hours has just happened only in Andhra Pradesh. I am not saying that YSRCP wouldn’t have come to power without the help of centre. They would have due to anti-incumbency vote bank, but the lead that they were able to attain is unimaginable. It was possible only with the help of these political tricks.
Using the independent agencies for the party’s benefit is definitely not the kind of ruling people expect from Narendra Modi. Even after so many allegations, the people of the country gave a much bigger mandate to BJP in 2019 just because of the hope they have on Narendra Modi. They were able to secure some votes due to lack of strong opposition, but the fact that people still believe in Narendra Modi will minuscule any other reasons. This might be the last and final hope that this generation of voters has, because if a leader like Narendra Modi with such unequivocal support cannot change the fate of the country no one else can in the near future.
