The Prime Minister launches schemes like Digital India, Clean India etc with great fanfare but forgets the follow up action. That is why the Indian people now take Modi�s announcements with a pinch of salt
Digital India move�what assurance of its sustainability?
Kumkum Chadha
Earlier, a child used to playfully wrench your reading glasses. Today, he reaches for your phone was Prime Minister Narendra Modis remarks while highlighting the importance of mobile phones in a changing world.
Modi was addressing a select gathering of business tycoons, heads of global companies and big time investors while launching Digital India: a move to provide electronic governance and universal phone connectivity across the country.
The aim is to bridge Indias digital divide, bringing in large investments in technology manufacturing: We need to Modi told the gathering understand this change or the world will pass us by.
M-Governance, Indias Prime Minister said will replace E-governance. In a lighter vein he added that M is not Modi Governance, it is mobile governance, the PM said with a smile, sketching a broad roadmap in his 27-minute speech of how he plans to digitize India.
In his 27 minute speech, Modi sketched a broad roadmap as he pointed to the dangers of what he called clouds of a bloodless war are hovering over the world terrifying the world.
Can India play this big role? India has talent. Can India provide a shield to the world by providing innovative and credible solutions? Why should we not have such a confidence? We should accept this challenge to ensure that the entire humanity lives in peace, Modi said.
Even as he spoke of dangers posed to cyber security, Modi said, somebody, with education of 10th or 12th class, sitting thousands of miles away, can clean up your bank account with a click of mouse. This situation needs to be addressed, he said.
His dream of a Digital India, the Prime Minister said, would translate into services being easily available to citizens on mobile devices.
I dream of a Digital India where government proactively engages with people through social media I dream of Digital India where cyber security becomes integral part of national security, he said, reminding the audience of the historical speech of Martin Luther King. India may have missed the Industrial Revolution but it will not miss the IT revolution Modi said.
Taking the cue, industrialists present pledged funds to the initiative. Reliance Industries Mukesh Ambani announced an investment of Rs 2.5 lakh crore over five years and said it will result in creation of 5 lakh jobs. He said his company was working with device makers to make affordable devices.
Birla group promised to invest USD 7 bn in next 5 years in network rollout and infra and digital space. Bharti Enterprises Chairman Sunil Mittal committed an investment of Rs one lakh crore in the next five years in digital space while Anil Ambani promised to invest Rs 10,000 crore over the next few years across digital, cloud and telecom space.
Put together, the industry pledged a total investment of Rs 4.5 lakh crore with a potential of adding 1.8 million jobs.
Industry czars also heaped praise on Prime Minister Modi. Some called him a visionary; others said that the Indian story driven by three Ds namely democracy, demographics and demand, now had a fourth D i.e. decisiveness.
At play was bonhomie that promised a new high on digital space: industry leaders as upbeat about the programme as Modi himself.
The Prime Minister seemed to lap it up. The two-hour event to empower citizens with use of IT was an idea waiting to become real and Modi indicated that his government would do what it takes to help it succeed. That the audience were on the same page as Modi was evident given that he was cheered and applauded when he spoke. There were, if reports are to be believed, some whistles also heard in the jam-packed venue.
Modis personal commitment to digital technology is well known given that he has several lakhs following him on Twitter and three times that number on Facebook.
Rhetoric apart, The Digital India project was a campaign promise of the BJP. It includes broadband connectivity in all panchayats, wi-fi in all schools and universities and public wi-fi hotspots in all important cities by 2019.
It will also be deployed in delivering services in areas like health, education, agriculture and banking.
If official claims are anything to go by, 10 village panchayats in Indore will be connected to high-speed internet service, while work on connecting 335 others is almost complete.
The government is reinvigorating an $18 billion campaign to provide fast internet connections for all, aimed at popularizing Prime Minister Narendra Modis campaign promise to connect 250,000 villages in India by 2019.
The Digital India Project aims to connect all gram panchayats by broadband internet, promote e-governance and transform India into a connected knowledge economy.
Even Modis bitterest critics cannot fault him on this grand plan. As they cannot on his intention to deliver the slew of programmes that he keeps launching in a country that voted him as a leader who would make a difference. Here lies the catch. While Modi is leader par excellence in rhetoric and words, the delivery seems to be fledging. It may be too early to say that Modi has failed and action does not match up to words, equally there are not enough signs of things actually taking off the ground: at least visibly.
Take for instance the much-publicized Swachch Bharat or Clean India campaign where Modi was seen sweeping streets. Every other minister followed and took to the broom. It was an excellent photo op.
Touted as a national campaign, to clean the streets, it was officially launched on 2 October 2014 at Rajghat, the Samadhi of Mahatma Gandhi. To catch eyeballs, the Prime Minister roped in well known faces for the campaign, included film stars Salman Khan and Priyanka Chopra and cricketer Sachin Tendulkar. They took to the streets and were seen sweeping dusty roads for a day.
That over, it is now business as usual. The Prime Minister seems to have forgotten the campaign and moved to another.
There is no follow up with the streets as unclean as they ever were and garbage dumps all over cities.
Were the Prime Minister serious about the initiative he should have made every MP and MLA accountable and ensured that the results of the campaign reflect on the streets. Some eight months down the line there should have been a qualitative change in clearing the muck that characterizes every nook and corner of the country. Nothing has changed.
This is the general feeling that is dominating moods in India: Nothing changes. There are grand plans and major announcements of what we want to and should do.
The Prime Minister launches schemes like Digital India, Clean India etc with great fanfare but forgets the follow up action. That is why the Indian people now take Modis announcements with a pinch of salt. Aware that he is a master of rhetoric, they are skeptical about his words translating into action; as they are of a common mans life actually changing. As of now, Modi has a long way to go. He must shift focus from announcements of grand schemes to results trickling in, lest he loses his relevance and credibility
The writer is a senior Indian journalist, political commentator and columnist of The Independent. She can be reached at: ([email protected])
