Yeah, Indira Gandhi wasn’t great either. Congress has its flaws.
None of that justifies the actions of today. Yes, the BJP has done some good things, but that’s true of many heinous authoritarians in the past as well.
No number of good things simply wash their hands of the bad stuff along the way.
I think NRIs are praising Modi because he is helping with the fall of Rupee as compared to other currencies so NRIs get maximum return when they send home USD.
Will you be able to share some examples of "at least doing some work in various areas"?
1. I see BJP government as expert in data manipulator and creating smoke screens through their network of social media cell and mainstream TV channels. [1]
2. As per Govt data, over 80 crore people in India currently depend upon government for free food. [2]
3. Modi government manipulated the GDP calculation method to show higher GDP growth. [3]
4. Modi government changed the calculation method to measure the length of highways. Going by lane km, the total length of highways constructed during 2017-18 fiscal comes to 34,378 km as against 9829 km if counted linearly. [4]
[1] https://zeenews.india.com/india/get-maths-lessons-bjp-faces-...
[2] https://www.livemint.com/news/india/over-80-crore-people-to-...
[3] https://scroll.in/article/954986/the-daily-fix-is-modi-gover...
[4] https://www.hindustantimes.com/india-news/now-new-concept-to...
"changed the calculation method to measure the length of highways."
Do I think Modi Govt doesn't manipulate some data ? Oh you bet they do. But I see real progress regardless and you cannot just throw some stats to change my mind. I see progress and I commend it and welcome it. Most people who live there don't care that Govt is manipulating how they measure the length of highways. They see that highways are being built. Congress didn't do shit for decades when my parents grew up in real shit 3rd world infrastructure. We are much better off in last decade or so.
I will agree with you that India has a long way to go but change is happening no matter how slow.
If You Earn Rs 25,000 (USD 300) Per Month, You're Among India's Top 10% Income Earners [2]
>> I travel to India once or twice a year for both pleasure and business. I can only tell you what I feel and see.
You may be able to travel to India and got 1 USD converted to INR 80, then may be its a win for you, but not for other Indians. I am not sure, but you might have been able to afford somewhat better way to travel/stay/eat than most of the Indians can. So what you feel and see might not be closer to reality for most of Indians.
>> I see incredible infrastructure changes...
So if a few private companies own most of India's infra, and building shopping malls, or if few politically connected builders building high rise buildings, or if roads/flyovers being built by private companies for which public will pay toll through their noses for years to come, then in my humble opinion, this is is not real development that you should give credit to the government. This is indeed the failure of the government.
>> Tons of airports being built and improved.
Government did sell a number of already built airports to Adani. Now Adani may make it a shiny new airpot and start charging fees for everything in airport but I don't see it as an achievement of Government. [3]
[1] https://news.abplive.com/news/india/cabinet-decision-80-cror...
[2] https://www.indiatimes.com/news/india/if-you-earn-rs-25000-p...
[3] https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/industry/transportation...
Under new methodology, highway stretch built = Number of lanes * kilometer stretch.
This is actually the international standard. However, when the current government compares itself with prior government, it compares apples with oranges: new methodology numbers versus old methodology numbers.
[1] https://www.hindustantimes.com/india-news/now-new-concept-to...
Very rare to see slip lanes even in normal roads of Tier 1 cities.
Just laying down asphalt isn't building highways.
India’s economy is getting a push as is clearly visible from some indisputable numbers like the digital transactions, sales of cars, homeowners count, etc. It’s just that all sources of income are not yet formalized in the huge country that is India so there is some extrapolation that needs to be done.
The Guinness book has recognized the Indian govt’s work for the most kilometers of roads constructed in a day and the new methodology is in use in other countries like the US as per the Minister, then it means the foreigners must be okay with manipulated numbers.
When was Europe one country?
I have no idea what you’re referring to here. Europe has never been one country, and will likely never be. Having smaller countries isn’t something bad, nobody would consider multiple Europeans countries to be a failure, or the result of a broken Europe. Even proponents of a United States of Europe (I am one) don’t see having multiple European countries as a failure.
If you're a proponent of the balkanization of India, then you're by default a proponent of of the biggest as-of-yet-unrealized genocide of the 21st century.
We could all use a little drama to support our points here.
You have drunk the koolaid, my friend.
India became 'India' in 1947. Before that (and even now) it was exactly like Europe ... many languages and cultures and food very very different from each other (ask a Naga what he has in common with Tamilians or Kashmiris), a large shared Hindu ethos similar to how Christianity was a common factor for Europe) and lots of warring kings with their own territories. There was no "Indian" identity.
About Congress ... no defence about their fuckups. But don't be so dismissive about what they accomplished. I say this as no fan of Indira Gandhi.
Remember that India had become free after 200 years of enslavement and harm to our self-image, from being one of the world's richest areas to the poorest, and millions of lives had been torn asunder under partition.
In Congress's era, esp. Jawaharlal Nehru's time, we got a beautiful constitution, the premier institutions and facilities (TIFR, IISc, IITs, FTII, BARC, AIIMS), developed a massive power infrastructure with hydel and nuclear, became a nuclear strong power, developed an in-house rocket and satellite program etc. It had a strong court system; recall that Indra Gandhi was thrown out by the Allahabad supreme court on electoral fixing.
Manmohan Singh was (and is) a learned economist who righted many of IG's fuckups. He led the 1991 reforms. A large large portion of the projects that Modi has lent his beaming face to were fully funded and started in the Manmohan era (Chandrayaan, Mangalyaan, Atal tunnel, UPI, Aadhar, so many airports and highways). The Modi govt has been successful in rebranding all of them in his image, but don't be fooled.
I can give you a huge laundry list of things that are terrible under Modi. The COVID response, the complete takeover of august institutions by deranged Hindus, the complete submission of the media, the complete takeover of massive projects by a few crony friends (a profitable and well-run Mumbai airport was taken over by Adani, who literally had zero experience in running airports, with no formal publicly transparent process). The "PM Cares" fund, which every single govt employee and every corporate was FORCED to hand over money too, apparently is not a fund of the govt; there is no transparency about how much money has been collected, let alone spent where. I could go on about how every minority (Dalits, Muslims, tribals) have been rogered.
It is easy to shit on the party in office which is BJP right now but show me a country that can have hundreds of languages, all religions and still survive for centuries as one country. Europe couldn't do it. They broke into EU (for better or worse). There are flaws but India is a complex country of various cultures and you have to understand the nuances.
Congress party ruled India for decades after Independence in 1947 and all they could do was to keep India as a 3rd world country while other similar countries progressed economically. Fun fact: Until the early 1980s, India and China were same econonically when COngress ruled India for decades. And talk about authoritarianism ? Who was the one who declared emergency in 1974 and suspended all "civil rights". That was Indira Gandhi from Congress, the so called "secular" party.
My point is that there is no saint and people in india like BJP because they are at least doing some work in various areas including infrastructure, economy and areas that have been neglected for decades. So yea, people wanted change and they got change with Modi as a strong leader.
Source: Also an NRI who is a naturalized US Citizen and I see a lot of positives among all the negatives that Media loves to portray.