Narendra Modi was elected by Indians with a thumping majority as a prospective Prime Minister of their country in 2014. It was the time when India was habituated to have coalition governments one after another. It was beyond the imagination of political pundits that a person almost single handedly would be able to form a stable government under his leadership. But Modi did this unthinkable thing. Not only he did this unexpected thing in 2014, he repeated this spectacular achievement once again in 2019. Certainly there must have been some concerns of the Indian public for electing him so overwhelmningly – and there must have been their some expectations from Modi. We do not wish to narrate here those concerns and expectations as they are commonsense thing for those who voted for him. We wish to state what he has been able to achieve from 2024 till 2021.
Modi has made four major achievements that have earned him a memorable place in the post independence India. These may be referred to as (a) strring up of Indian people; (b) making India Catch-up with the rest of the developed world in a democratic setup, which is infested with jealesy and opposition; (c) inspiring India to think beyond today; and (d) preparing the next generation of leaders in his image to take his place as and when he leaves the scene.
(a) stirring up of India:
India is like an ocean of humans. There are 1.5 billions of people living in this country. How much is 1.5 billion? There are 7 billions of humans living on earth and out of them 1.5 in India alone. Roughly speaking, every sixth person living on earth is living in India.
This Indian ocean of humans was living for centuries, if not for thousands, of years like a standing water – stagnated and stinking water. Modi as PM has stirred this stagnated sea of humanity – there is commotion in India; there is an awkening in India.
Whose awakening is it? India has 80% persons belonging to Indic faiths – Hindus, Sikhs, Jains, Buddhists, Shaivites, Vashnavites and many other branches like them. Obviously it is stirring and awakening of these 80% Indians. What about the remaining 20% Indians? They are primarily Muslims and secondarily Christians apart from Parsees. Most of them do not feel awakened – they feel apprehensive.
The fact is that these 80% do not seek conversion of 20% to their side but the 20% seek conversion of 80% to their side. Now because of the new awakening these adversely effected 80% have become alert to this threat and, consequently, the 20% have become apprehensive. Of late a strange phenomenon is catching up fast in India. Thanks to the tremendous power of social media today many out of these 20% are realizing the futility of their faith’s insane spree for conversion and the great utility for them of the Indic faiths for a peaceful life. Nobody knows where this phenomenon would ultimately land these 20%. Though nobody is proding them in this work, they may end-up where they belong by default. This is one of the side-effects of this strring up of Indian society.
If one sees the enormity of this task of stirring of 1.5 billion Indians and knocking them out of their slumber, it would seem nothing less than miraculous achievent of Modi.
(b) catchingupwith the world:
As if this creation of waves in the standing and stagnated sea of 1.5 billion people was not enough to get him recorded in the post-independence Indian history, this man called Modi embarked on an active and pragmatic program of making India catch-up with the rest of the developed world.
This work of making India catch-up with the developed world included things like unleasing the creative power of Indian educated human resource, inviting foreign technology leaders to “Make in India”, streamlining of Indian beaurocratic process for setting up of “Start Ups” by Indian innovaters and investors, special initiative to help set up manufecturing critical technological tools like electronic semiconductors and chips, opening up ISRO’s technological secrets to private sector, urging brillant minds in fundamental science to work in the field of gravity and gravity-waves, inviting private players in space and defence, overhauling economic and financial institutions and plugging their loopholes, creating psychological congenial atmosphere in India for young educated to “Think Beyond Today”, bringing brilliant past of India into educational cariculam etc. It requires a tremendous amount of energy for a man to embark on such an ambitious goal. Modi showed that he had this energy. Today these steps may seem trivial tit-bits of a clever politician. But they are not.
These are the seeds that will grow with time and give sweet fruits in due time.
Only a few who have insight into how humanity progresses can understand the value of these steps. In value these steps are many time more weighty than creating wealth in the present. They lay a highway for a shining future for India.
(c) inspiring India to think beyond today:
This man – PM of India – inspires by his action, example and thought. In value it is not less than the earlier two.
It is like providing India for an engine to propel it relentlessly. By his acts he shows the way to a nation that it can follow; by his personal example he creates confidence among his countrymen that it can be done by others too; and by his original thoughts he presents to the world the Indian way of thinking or Indian civilization to solve the burning global problems.
He says that to save our environment the world needs to change its way of living: One world with peace; this world without violence; green energy; unity and proactivity to confront its challanges; honesty in purpose and conduct of nations etc. These insightful initiatives have catapulted him from the Indian national scene to the global forum of humanity.
(d) New leaders in the pipeline:
But all these three achievements of Modi are highly personal achievements – they die with the person who did them unless somebody else is to continue the process further. In the absence of this caveat, they may be great achievements but they are not of a great significance in the utility when a country is put in a continuous historical prespective. In significance, it will be more weighty than these three ones.
There is a concept in science – the concept of “critical mass” (in atomic fission), “escape velocity” (in rocketry), “onset of a process” (in social science). It is the concept of leaving something out of its personal domain and becoming a self-sustaining activity. What Modi has achieved is personal to his credit but by his acts he is about to achieve this most significant social “escape velocity” in India by making more leaders in his image waiting in the queue. Yogi Adityanath, Hemant Biswa Sarma, Viplav Kumar and more like them are waiting to take over the process that was initiated by Modi.
When we assess a person we should remember that a human being has limited life and limited energy. How much can one aspire to achive? And, how much can one be actually able to achieve in practice? Not very much – at least not this much. If there is Divine and if India has sime purpose to preserve its old wisdom, then this Divine must be working through human beings only.