The first six months of Modi have been about goodwill garnering. Now it’s time for him to translate it into concrete deliverables.

Six months. That’s how long it takes to change a country. And how do you measure change? Well, by the swagger of the leaders, the adulatory exuberance in streets on foreign land and the gush media’s ability to abandon reason for unabashed chest-thumping. As yardsticks go, these are odd. But that is all we have to judge Narendra Modi’s performance in the last six months. The routine metrics are still not in play as the period under assessment is too short.

Now, about the change. If it sounds a bit sarcastic, well, it cannot be helped. If the gush media is to be believed we are a global superpower already. The proof: India can get bigger, noisier crowds on the streets than any other country anywhere in the world; and our television anchors can invite guests from foreign countries to their shows and insult and humiliate them no end. Also, we are an economic powerhouse which no country can ignore. Weren’t they moving around with begging bowls till we allowed them to do business with us?

All our immediate problems are over. That niggle called Pakistan has been silenced forever. Stop talking to them; do it long enough so that they forget about terrorists they sponsor to target India and forget Kashmir too. Why did everyone think Pakistan was such a complex problem requiring multi-level bilateral engagement to be tackled when such simple solutions were at hand? China, of course, is a joke, more hype than substance. It has been put in its place. India is a certified South Asian superpower now and can play the big brother in the region without qualms.

Back home, the economy is back on the rails. UPA’s bugbear for over four years, inflation, has been tackled well. Didn’t it take only six months for the new government to tackle that? What the experts won’t tell us though is the role of sharp, unexpected dip in crude and commodity prices globally in taming prices – it has yet to reflect in retail prices though. This is the windfall UPA 1 enjoyed too. The balance of payment matter is taken care of, and issues of corruption, crony capitalism and black money are off public consciousness. India is on the verge of a manufacturing revolution and wholesale structural shift in the economy. If the ‘experts’ in the media are to be believed the Golden Age of economic prosperity is already upon us.

Talk, talk and more talk and little action on the ground – that’s what it has been so far. Most of the talk has been from the willing trumpeters of the new dispensation while the government itself has been a tad sober about its achievements and targets. The latter has been careful about not sending any wrong message to people and has appeared full of good intention and pleasing gestures. But its promises have hardly translated into concrete action on the ground. That’s where the real challenge for the Narendra Modi government lies. Given the intricate nature of issues involved, perhaps it is best to allow him more time – two years would be ideal.

But can the trumpeters be patient? No. In their worldview bereft of respect for nuance and perspective, change is all about making and tweaking laws, and taking a grand position on issues. These can happen in quick time. Watch those panelists on television debates and you'll get the point. In Modi they have created a super leader and imbued him with superhuman attributes. They cannot accept that he, too, like all humans can fail or go wrong or go slow at times. Since the other intelligent yardsticks for evaluation of performance become redundant given this backdrop, crowd on the streets becomes the easy measure of public approval. In some perverse way, it’s apt for our dumbed down times. In any case, crowds on the streets are not known for their patience.

The first six months of Modi have been about goodwill garnering. He has done it ample measure inside the country and on foreign land. Now it’s time for him to translate it into concrete deliverables. He has proven himself to be a pragmatic leader, at least on two fronts, foreign affairs and economy - the prime minister keeping a distance from domestic matters is a bit intriguing though. He shouldn’t allow the frenzied, irrational adulation distract him.