Suddenly the emperor is seen to have no clothes on, and stands exposed in his folly.

The emperor, of course, is Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who swept into power in the last general election.

The massive mandate the so-called ‘Modi sarkar’ received was a popular vote of confidence in the charismatic leader for his ability to get things done, in sharp contrast to the ‘policy paralysis’ that had gripped the Congress-led government in its second term.

Modi was going to bring back all the black money stashed abroad, so that every Indian could be given 15 lakhs. He was going to double farmers’ income in five years. He was going to boost the economy like an ISRO space rocket. He was going to create 10 million jobs each year.

He was going to do a lot of things. And, true to his word, he did do a lot of things. Unfortunately, for both him as well as for the rest of the country, they were the wrong things.

The thunderbolt of demonetisation has devastated the economy, causing widespread damage which will take years to repair, particularly in the unorganised sector. And, for all the harm it has done, demonetisation failed to recover any black money, which was one of its main objectives.

This supposedly pro-poor move has turned out to be viciously anti-poor, since daily-wage labourers and small farmers have been the worst affected by it.

With the economy still reeling from the shock of demonetisation, the GST bill was rolled out, amidst much fanfare, being hailed as the single most important economic reform in India’s post-Independence history.

While sound in principle, the introduction of GST was done without adequate planning.

The measure has badly hit exporters and the trading community which is the main support group of the BJP. Economic growth has slumped to below 6 per cent. Joblessness – particularly among the youth, another important constituency of Modi’s – is increasing alarmingly.

All of a sudden, ‘Modi sarkar’ is being tagged as ‘Modi bekar’. Sidelined BJP stalwarts like Subramaniam Swami and former finance minister Yashwant Sinha have come out strongly critical of the PM’s leadership.

Even the so-called ‘Modi bakhts’ have fallen largely silent in their vociferous support of the PM. Modi had promised to make the country ‘Congress mukt’ – Congress-free. Will the country, come the next election in 2019, make itself ‘Modi mukt’, Modi-free?

Will 2019 see a political deModitisation as radical and far-reaching as economic demonetisation has been?