Reform is needed not just in economic matters but in every area of governance. Does the Prime Minister know how hard it is to get a passport? Reform is needed not just in economic matters but in every area of governance. Does the Prime Minister know how hard it is to get a passport?

At the end of six months of the Modi sarkar are we seeing signs that it is confusing efficiency with reform? I ask the question because so far there is no sign of real reform in any area of governance. And, because some of Narendra Modi’s most ardent supporters are now beginning to get worried. Last week I met a man who dedicated a whole year to helping Modi become Prime Minister and he seemed despondent. When I asked how he thought the government was doing, he said he would answer in the words of the management guru Peter Drucker, “There is nothing quite so useless as doing with great efficiency something that should not be done at all.”

We can certainly not fault this government on efficiency. Ministers, high officials, clerks and peons now report for duty on time and are no longer to be seen taking long lunch breaks to soak in winter sunshine in Delhi’s parks. The Prime Minister’s Office hums with more noise and activity than we have seen in a decade but, despite this, there are no signs of the policy changes that are vital if we are to see real reform. The Planning Commission has been abolished but there are many, many other leftovers from socialist times that must go. Do we need a Ministry of Information & Broadcasting in an age when the Internet has made propaganda futile? Do we need a meddlesome University Grants Commission? Do we need the government to continue wasting our money on a hopeless airline and badly run hotels? We do not.

What we do need is for the government to make policies that will convince investors that India is a safe bet once more. We do not need a new government that simply implements more efficiently bad policies that it inherited from the last government. It was because of those policies that investors fled and the economy stopped growing. Unless this changes through better policies, the jobs that the Prime Minister promises young people at election rallies will not come. So far signals are so mixed that investors continue to shy away.

The Finance Minister promises to end tax terrorism but in the next breath orders tax inspectors to go forth in search of black money. Vodafone has been given temporary relief by the courts but the retroactive tax remains valid. And, although we hear that the government has grandiose plans to improve the decrepit transport systems, power stations and ports it inherited, it continues to refuse to pay those who have to build them. The infrastructure industry is owed more than Rs 1.5 lakh crore in government dues and this has crippled major companies. No amount of efficiency in announcing new projects will make a difference unless old dues are cleared.

Reform is needed not just in economic matters but in every area of governance. Does the Prime Minister know how hard it is to get a passport? Does he know that a police check is required even if you just want to get a few pages added to your passport? Does he know how hard it is to do routine things like registering property? Does he know that no amount of efficiency will improve healthcare services that are broken?

No amount of efficiency will improve educational services that have long been in terminal decline because of bad policies and interfering officials. At the same time, the licence raj that strangles private investment in schools and colleges remains in place.

Modi’s popularity with ordinary people has increased since he became Prime Minister, as we saw from his rallies in Kashmir last week, but it will not last if the jobs do not come and if public services do not improve. At this point, may I say that I am fully aware that decades of Congress rule have left India in a very bad way, so to expect miraculous change in six months would be madness. What I do believe we have a right to expect from the man who promised ‘parivartan’ and ‘vikas’ are signs of changes in the offing. Every ministry should by now have given us at the very least a roadmap of the changes in policy we can expect in the next six months. This has not happened and this is the main reason why even Modi’s supporters are beginning to lose hope.

It has to be said that what has really changed in the past six months is the mood of India. Where there was total despair, there is now so much hope that it is almost frightening. The Prime Minister must seize the moment because, in politics, hope is tenuous and ephemeral. It manifests itself rarely and dissipates easily. India is in its thrall today as never before. Does Modi have what it takes to make hope endure?

Follow Tavleen Singh on Twitter @ tavleens

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