<div><em><strong>Sandeep Bamzai</strong> says The single biggest takeaway of the new Modi Government was that corruption had been consigned the rubbish heap</em><br><br><br>An almost visceral hatred for one another has debilitated the Indian parliament in an unprecedented manner imperilling reforms and leaving the public at large confounded. To build a better world, you have to tear down the old. And this is what one thought would happen once the new BJP under Narender Modi's leadership virtually seized power in May 2014 decimating the Congress, Samajwadi Party, Bhaujan Samaj Party, Left, RJD, JD U and others. Only some regional chieftains held sway in their areas of influence - Mamata Banerjee, Jayalalitha, Naveen Patnaik, Shiv Sena, TDP and TRS. Modi had promised much, his playbook enlarging with each big rally. Hope was up as he was sworn in. Some of us in media realised that it wasn't going to be easy for his administration short on hands on experience would take time to untie the knots left behind by the previous dispensation which had grown roots over the decade it ruled.</div><div> </div><div><table align="right" border="0" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="2" style="width: 200px"><tbody><tr><td><img alt="" src="http://bw-image.s3.amazonaws.com/Sandeep-Bamzai1.jpg" style="width: 200px; height: 287px; margin: 1px; float: left;"></td></tr><tr><td><strong>Sandeep Bamzai</strong></td></tr></tbody></table>As months passed by and one spoke to ministers and bureaucrats, it appeared that untangling the knots left behind was taking too much time be it in petroleum or finance or power or coal or highways or railways and other economic ministries. The new year came around and hope continued to float. Then a year in office was completed and there was a sense of ennui and even lassitude. Foreign policy or international diplomacy and security issues aside, the government appeared to be unsure as to what it wanted. It appeared directionless laying too much emphasis on parliamentary legislation to undertake reforms. On May 26, the uncharitable even went onto say that the UPA had completed 11 years in office.</div><div> </div><div>The single biggest takeaway of the new Modi Government was that corruption had been consigned the rubbish heap and notwithstanding what the Congress says about Lalitgate, there is no like to like instance of gargantuan corruption scams like say 2G spectrum, coalgate or CWG. I agree that Vyapam is a scandal with myriad mysterious deaths which needed to be investigated thoroughly and the monetary transactions between Lalit Modi and Vasundra Raje's son Dushyant appear prima facie dubious and require probe, but nothing conclusive on the lines of a quid pro quo has been proved in Sushma Swaraj's case. But the revitalised Congress encircled the BJP and its foreign minister to make sure that parliament simply didn't function.</div><div> </div><div>The breakdown in relations between treasury and opposition led in the main by the Congress has been a cause for concern because it has led to a dysfunctionality never seen before. It emanates from the dislike that Modi has for the first family which is mutually shared by them for him resulting in a deadlock. Floor and party managers from the BJP have failed abysmally to break the gridlock and the Congress has taken a virulent stand against Modi and his Government. Something not quite seen in Indian polity. Who do you blame? The Congress would be the obvious whipping boys for they have led the disruptions over Sushma's alleged corruption which cannot be equated to what transpired during the lost decade under the Congress. Equally I think the BJP is to blame for not trying to send out feelers to break the ranks of the opposition. But the time it did with Mulayam Singh Yadav it was too late. IN any case, the SP has no muscle in the 15th Lok Sabha being reduced to tatters with five MPs. Further the BJP's narrow-minded obsession to focus on the land bill and GST and use the instrumentality of legislation to get unpalatable reform out of the way was poor strategic thinking. </div><div> </div><div>Unfortunately the same BJP led by the same Arun Jaitley and Sushma Swaraj in the upper and lower houses had signed off on the draconian land bill - Sonia's pet bill on January 1, 2014. My question is when you knew that it would deindustrialise India and make land acquisition practically impossible, why did you sign off on it. Incidentally, by January 2014, the winds of change were already blowing in India, a resurgent BJP under Modi had registered more than emphatic victories in Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Chattisgarh and done well in Delhi. Yet you chose in a sign of bipartisanship to back the land bill. GST was a Congress reform which the Congress was refusing to go through now because it believed that impeding the BJP on anything and everything was vital.</div><div> </div><div>It was a piquant situation for the ruling party which suddenly appeared bereft of ideas and inertia ridden, its complete dependence on parliamentary legislation seeing it vanquished at the gates. Fifteen months after storming to power, the BJP seems to be befuddled and confused despite having 280 members of its own in the Lok Sabha. Baulked by the tyranny of numbers in the Rajya Sabha, it is leaden footed and maladroit. On the day of the adjournment motion when Sushma Swaraj tore into the Congress first family and after Rahul gandhi had with great bravado and derring do attacked Modi and Sushma, the PM himself chose not to sit in the house even though he was present in his parliamentary office.</div><div> </div><div>India meanwhile suffers, it awaits its tryst with radical reform, something which the BJP promised. It awaits its tryst with development and growth. It follows an effusive and middling path, not taking on the Congress and calling its bluff. It needed a Super charged Sushma to tear into the Congress and its hypocrites. As we stand on the cusp of yet another Independence Day, an embattled Modi and his Government seem intellectually incapable of navigating their way to shore. Needless controversies and a catalogue of them to boot have incapacitated the Government which now needs to use its executive decision making authority to emerge from this rubbish heap.</div><div> </div><div>India awaits a Modi who goes beyond sloganeering and event management, it awaits a visionary Modi brimming with ideas executing his plans despite being constricted with a limited gene pool of his council of ministers. It awaits the Modi who promised so much and delivered so little. It awaits the Modi who one thought would be transformative. Clock's ticking, but you still have four years to redeem yourself. </div><div> </div>
