Modi @ 11

The Modi govt turned 11 and was celebrated. Why 11 years, why not 12.5 years I wondered. Most were convinced after the subpar results in the 2024 elections, Modi 3.0 was on crutches that could be pulled down anytime. After initial attempts where everybody was convinced that Nitish Kumar and Chandrababu Naidu would jump ship or make unacceptable demands and walk out, both stayed put and how!!!! Once again the propensity of Modi to play Russian Roulette was demonstrated where it is told that he refused to budge on any preposterous demands made and said Dirty Harry style – go ahead, make my day. Hopefully guns weren’t used. 

Picture sourced online, due credit to whoever owns it, NO commercial or IP infringement intent

Completing 1 as Modi 3.0 and Modi@11 did demand attention especially since he now looks more stronger after Operation Sindoor. While much has been written and discussed I focus on a few issues that are not debated much.

NDMA/ NDRF:

The National Disaster Response Force was set up under Manmohan Singh in 2006, operational in 2008, to play a pivotal role in disaster management. The organisation contributed during incidents like floods, building collapse etc in the initial years earning a good name. They come under the National Disaster Management Authority chaired by the Prime Minister directly.

Like many Govt agencies, something started with good intentions soon became a parking ground for retired, dejected, disgruntled politicians and officers at the policy and management level with the operational team doing the best they could.

Modi soon after he took over in 2014, directed that this body become a key “fighting” force in any disaster, gain experience across events, modernise and above all the management and policy making leadership was given to the best professionals in the country. The body is now headed by 3 experts Lt Gen Syed Ata Hasnain, Former General Officer Commanding & Military Secretary, Sri Rajendra Singh Former Director General, Indian Coast Guard and Sri Krishna S. Vatsa, Policy Advisor, Disaster Recovery, Bureau for Policy and Programme Support (BPPS), UNDP

The PM led guidelines were focused.

• Development sectors must imbibe principles of disaster risk management
• Risk coverage must include all - poor households to SMEs to multi-national corporations to nation states
• Women’s leadership and involvement should be central.
• Invest in risk mapping globally to understand Nature.
• Leverage technology to enhance efficiency.
• Develop network of universities to work on disaster-related issues
• Utilise opportunity provided by social media and mobile technologies.
• Build on local capacity and initiative.
• Make use of every opportunity to learn from disasters, studies on lessons after the event.
• Greater cohesion in international response to disasters

The operational team of NDRF was modernised with equipment and more importantly sent to locations globally including Turkey in real time so the personnel get exposed to events and gain invaluable experience. The Turkey earthquake happened on 6th February and the NDRF team started work at site on 7th February with a total of 152 members including 5 women and 4 dogs. The 152 member team was issued passports overnight, gear to work in sub-zero temperatures, 3 Globemaster planes with 11 vehicles and equipment. From deciding to send a team and start work at site in less than 24 hrs is astounding to say the least when we recall past events.

There are 16 battalions across India apart from local state battalions. They have undertaken about 120 missions. As of 2024 that there are states still not equipped and planning to have units AFTER experiencing multiple disasters displays the lack of importance to safety in India.

An organisation that at best was known as a General Knowledge question, is today a household name. Any disaster across India, when TV cameras are the first on the spot, we see the NDRF teams in real time doing their silent work, and news channels talk about NDRF being onsite.

This transformation of an organisation that is crucial in today’s world deserves applause.

Defence & Aerospace Manufacturing:

The results seen during Operation Sindoor more than adequately justify the brilliance of this decision. This is not to say that Govts in the past did not contribute to this activity. The Modi Govt kicked this this up by orbits. The Aerospace sector and its technology were closely intertwined.

Start ups, Hackathons and other activities meant that many technologies were developed and scaled up in areas like Drones, Electronic warfare etc. From being an exclusive club, Modi forced defence organisations and departments to open doors and bring in fresh air and thought.

Not every effort need be linked to defence directly, it maybe indirect but equally critical since without it the defence sector could suffer greatly. Post Atmanirbhar/ Make in India around 5000+ localisation/ indigenisation efforts have been taken up by the defence ministry and of this about 3000+ indigenised. More than 300 funded for prototype development.

Over 1000 start ups have been redefining how Indian defence works today. Initiatives like Supporting Pole-Vaulting in R&D through iDEX, Naval Innovation, and Technology Development Acceleration Cell coupled with the Defence Innovation Fund has created significant attention from Indian organisations. The startups work closely with the armed forces and organisations like ISRO to integrate, innovate and create solutions that have a force multiplier effect.

The Indian Navy within 2 years received over 2,000 proposals, resulted in 155 challenges, culminated in 171 contracts in collaboration with 213 MSMEs, granted projects of over Rs 2,000 crore and Rs 784 crore contracts completed. Some are today supporting organisations like NASA and Lockheed Martin.

• IIT Delhi developed a high-resolution camera sensor for airborne platforms and missiles within 12 months.
• More than 50% of the projects involved cutting edge technology involving Artificial Intelligence, cybersecurity, and over 20% kickstarted by women.

These pictures tell a better story.

The way the defense/aerospace technologies, ISRO/ Defense strategy integrations have happened is a brilliant achievement of Modi@11.

Security Doctrine:

For long the nation had been held captive to a idealistic position that if one kept saying “I love you” and be patient even when kicked around – whether by external terrorists or internal insurgency like the Naxal movement – the enemy would ultimately reform and start exuding love. Real life doesn’t work that way. A nation needs to wield a big stick and demonstrate it is willing to use it.

The Modi govt upended 65 years of security doctrine by stating that any action against the nation would attract strong and disproportionate response, which will be further escalated. Whether naxals or the Pakistani establishment, the Indian govt demonstrated this policy in action and even called out the nuclear bluff. Surgical Strike, Balakot, Operation Sindoor, Indus water treaty which even survived the 1965, 1971, 1998 wars in abeyance demonstrate that the Modi Govt has walked their talk. 

Left wing extremist violence has reduced from around 1936 incidents to 374, from 18,000 sq kms to around 8,500 sq kms, civilian and security force deaths have reduced by 81%. Pictures tell a story better.

It has not just been a show of force, but has been backed by Road, Mobile and Financial connectivity in these areas which has reduced the influence of the left wing extremists. For long, be it the Northeast, Kashmir border areas or the naxal hinterlands, opinion was that development of infrastructure and connectivity would increase “enemy” activity and make things easier for them. That policy was buried, and the results are there for the nation to see. This is still work in progress but one can see the light at the end of the tunnel.

NGO Funding:

It was not until Trump 2.0 happened, and a maverick Elon Musk let loose an army of young techies who using AI snooped into every nook and corner that the world realised that USAID was not “Aid” but actual AID. Sure, as a GK question we knew it was the “Agency for International Development”, but for 64 years we believed it meant Aid. Suddenly news popped out that the CIA had used USAID to funnel funds for NGO’s who would actively work to do every dirty work that they could not fund officially. Apparently USAID could use their budget, but CIA needed Congressional approvals. Many across the world talked of how the organisation had affected their nations.

Way back in 2010, a journalist had written about William Easterly, American economist, Professor at New York university arguing that donors in the western world fund tyrants, dictators in the name of aid and promoting sustainable democracy. The name USAID was mentioned. He is quoted as saying that sometimes donors do show concern for democracy. But most times it is about “buying” allies for support, and strangely it was also to ensure that incoming funding does not stop unless used. Another news from 2018 surfaced that read as below.

The name of George Soros has now become synonymous with funding dirty work. The veracity of this is not relevant, but one doesn’t find him objecting strongly. He denies accusations like any criminal would, but shrugs and moves on. Over the decades many national leaders globally have accused him of dirty work. 

• 1997 Asian financial crisis, Malaysian PM, Mahathir Mohamad, accused Soros of punishing the ASEAN. 
• In UK he is known as the man who broke the Bank of England in 1992. 
• Tayyip Erdogan then Turkish PM had accused him of conspiracy to "divide" and "shatter" Turkey. 
• Italy, former Dy PM Matteo Salvini accused him of wanting to fill the country with migrants while current PM Giorgia Meloni accuses him as a threat to democracy. 
• Icelandic PM Sigmundur Davíð Gunnlaugsson, Russian President Vladimir Putin, President of Azerbaijan, Ilham Aliyev, and many others have accused Soros.

Much much before Trump 2.0 happened the dirty work of such NGOs were debated widely. 

In reality, most of the NGO community does excellent work globally, a few, which get involved in nefarious activities bring infamy to the sector. They get funded by vested interests and use their connect and trust with the local community to foment unrest or worse. They undo the good work of the majority NGO’s.

These are excepts from long ago, much before Trump to understand that this has been a challenge since long. The Modi govt early on targeted the NGOs to become accountable as regards their means of finance, funding from foreign donors, their expenditure and to link the stated objective of the funding to the actual work being done. Logically one would say this should be simple notwithstanding bureaucratic inefficiency, but the furious protests by the few who could not explain the chain between funding and work done resulted in their credibility being lost. Even if 90% of the NGOs were genuine and faced hurdles, it was the 10% that raised red flags all around.

Without going into the justification of certain protests and blockades in India, one has wondered at the brilliant organisation, speed, level of funding, and lengthy duration when the policy decisions being objected to were not life and death desperation issues. More so when one finds that the same policy decisions were also a part of major opposition party manifesto in one case and in another did not even pertain to Indians. That somebody routed funds and provided leadership was obvious to any layman.

As a personal example some youngsters apparently a part of some NGO gave me a stray dog to adopt in Delhi, funded its delivery to Bangalore and when I found that it was mentally unstable, and objected, was threatened with police action and arrest for cruelty to animals. Once I stood up to this bullying they flew down from Delhi and took back the dog. Doing the math of cost, I was astounded how a NGO could spend this kind of money and why?

The Govt used an iron hand, did not care what criticism it faced and while the nefarious activities may not have stopped, the dirty activity levels have dropped significantly. Accountability by accounting has helped India navigate itself with less risk of being run over by movements even if the country has been held to ransom. The visionary action on this by the Govt to regulate NGO funding is one of the most important decisions taken by the Modi govt.

Conclusion:

The hallmark of the Modi@11 has not been in reinventing the wheel or discarding past govt initiatives, but in identifying the gaps, plugging them, optimising them to a significantly high degree with new thinking and building upon them. As I had once remarked about Modi as CM of Gujarat, in a blog, he didn’t invent the Gujarat model, he just refined and finetuned it and then kicked it up by a few orbits. That is exactly what he has done even with India across multiple fronts. He has demonstrated a consistent mantra - India First – determination, focus and the rest have followed automatically.