In early December, when Prime Minister Narendra Modi declared at a political rally in Uttar Pradesh that the queue outside banks, following the note ban, was going to be the last queue for Indians, he sounded more like a besieged general wanting to shore up the sagging morale of troops desperate to escape the battle.Mr Modi is a master of big words: his entire 2014 campaign was woven around hyperboles, projecting him as a magician who would bring good days to all citizens, if elected. He is not unique in this, though; most successful electoral campaigns are built on hope, and the superhuman capabilities of the leaders to deliver almost everything to voters.Big talks are permitted in politics, but when actions are woefully short, they can come back to bite politicians. And Modi’s ‘last queue’ declaration could be one.First of all, this is not going to be the last queue for Indians, after all, whichever yardstick Mr Modi or his government uses. Consider this:* A million Indians join the job market every month. And if they were to stand in a single file and each person takes about a foot or 30 cm, it would make a 300 km line, more than the distance between Delhi and Jaipur . And this is just a monthly addition to one of the longest lines of unemployed people in the world.* India has about 270 million poor people. And so the queue that’s waiting to shed the ‘below poverty line’ tag is about 81,000 km long, or nearly 30 times the distance between New Delhi and Kanyakumari.* With more than 20 million cases pending in Indian courts, and assuming just five people’s fate were tied to each case, it would make a 30,000-km long line, if they were all to stand in a single file demanding justice. This would be 15 times the distance between Mumbai and Kolkata * Similarly, the line of primary school students waiting to be able to properly read their class textbooks is overwhelmingly long. In 2014 Pratham survey, only a fourth of all children in Std III could read a Std II text fluently. And a fourth of Std VIII children couldn’t read Std II text.* The annual line of students unable to get a seat in the college of their choice or an option to study their preferred subjects has been getting frustratingly long.* All our top universities have been stuck in a long policy and competency jam that shuts them out of the global top league.* India’s inability to move up the ease of doing business rankings keeps our entrepreneurs stuck in long unproductive queues. Among 190 countries, India is 130th in the World Bank’s Ease of Doing Business rankings.* Investors who long queued up to make money on our markets are still waiting. Our stock markets have returned barely 5% in a little more than two-and-a-half years of this government.* Similarly, the lines of people waiting to breathe fresh air, drink uncontaminated water, access 24×7 electricity or even get a confirmed berth on Indian Railways would be millions of kilometres long.The fact is we are perpetually in long queues, many of these unfortunately perpetrated by the state, as have been the lines in front of banks or ATMs these days.By declaring these queues as the last ones for Indians, Mr Modi, like the general who tells his troops it is going to be the last fight, faces a big risk of losing the faith of his people. If the battle is not final, it doesn’t matter if a general wins or loses, for there is another battle waiting, which without the full confidence of people, can never be won.