Unlike the Maino family of Orbassano, which since the 1980s has joined the elite of Italy rather than, as previously, eking out a humble living, the Modi family of Vadnagar was, and remains, in straitened circumstances.
The Rs 25,000 that was contributed to the Prime Minister’s Covid fund by his mother represented a goodly chunk of her life savings. But this is the exception.
In common with the Mainos, there are innumerable political families dotted across India whose fortunes skyrocketed after one of their number ascended to a high position.
It must be said to the credit of Jawaharlal Nehru that neither he nor his only child profited from his 17 years at the apex of the machinery of governance in the country.
It was only some years after Rajiv Gandhi married Sonia Maino that his family (and hers) began to climb up the economic ladder, a change in fortunes that began during the period when Indira Gandhi was occupying the South Block office once used by her father.
If the countless millions of unemployed and underemployed youth in India are not rampaging on the streets the way they have been in some other countries, it is because they still have hope that Prime Minister Modi will fulfil his promise of “Achhe Din”.
This is something that FinMin Sitharaman and others in the Council of Ministers need to keep in mind as they work on the many more tranches of assistance that are needed to ensure that the economy recover from the Covid shock within the year.
Thus far, what has been served does not qualify even as a first course, but only as an aperitif.
Who was responsible for the official turning of a blind eye to a gathering of radical preachers in the heart of the Lutyens Zone that included more than 2,000 foreigners who ought never to have been given visas to enter India?
Given the underperformance and errors made by some who hold key positions in the Modi dispensation, it is clear that the only reason why the 21-day all-India lockdown has worked so well is because of the trust that people still have in the Prime Minister.
The Prime Minister’s entire team needs to understand the imperative of handling their responsibilities in the manner expected by the PM. The goodwill that Modi has brought to his ministerial and higher administrative team needs to be matched by actions... .
Had every agency functioned with the efficiency expected of them by both the people as well as the PM, lapses such as preventing panic movement of casual labourers or the inability of the system to have acted in time to prevent the Nizamuddin get-together would have been avoided.
Modi is a veritable Goodwill Bank that has been stocked with the trust of people & the respect of the world. Each individual who has been entrusted with a key responsibility by PM needs to work in a manner that adds to public goodwill for the govt rather than subtracts from it.
Team Modi must follow PM’s example for India’s success i.mdnalapat.com/tsg050420
