Dear Mr Narendra Modiji,

Hum ko maloom hai jannat ki haqeeqat, lekin,
Dil ko khush rakhne ke liye Ghalib, ye khayal acha hai

Ever since you took over as Prime Minister of India, India has been hoping for a good change in the way things were going on till now, especially because that is what you promised everyone.

You certainly have taken many steps to ensure swiftness in how work is done, increase transparency and reduce difficulties being faced by the citizens at large. But of what benefit are those steps if their implementation is faulty?

In this letter, we’ll try and discuss a bit about your different flagship programmes and initiatives.

1. First among these concerns the backbone of Indian economy – farmers. It has for long been believed that India lost its edge over China when it decided to focus on the industrial sector rather than the agrarian sector at the beginning of its journey after independence. The result is for anyone to see.However, your initiative of eNAM (eNational Agriculture Market) is a good concept which was though already being used in different states. Launched in 2016, it aimed to link 585 APMCs to the grid within 2 years. The feat was achieved by March 2018. But the interesting part is that it has remained at that level for more than 2 years now. Why are more APMCs not being linked to eNAM? Are the officers and employees unable to perform in this area then?
   The total transaction amount is moving at a very feeble pace with the last reported figure being upwards of only Rs 85,000 crore. This rather small amount of agriculture transactions compared to the actual national figures shows how slowly are we moving. States cannot only be blamed for not being pro-active with this initiative. It has been almost 4 years now. When will we see noticeable traction in eNAM? To be more precise, when and how will we double farmers’ income?

2. Your Mann ki Baat has been a hit, considering hearing our Prime Minister’s voice was an upgrade to what was on offer till you took over. But that did not mean you had an option of only speaking and not listening. In a nation of 1.3 billion people, a selected few were only quoted or their problems discussed. I do understand many of them had similar problems as that of a common citizen. But does that mean that all such problems were solved? Mr Prime Minister, the nation was functioning for more than 60 years before you took over as the Pradhan Sevak. Problems were being solved even then.From Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru to Shri Atal Behari Vajpayee, each leader has held Jan Sabhas or at least been interactive with the press which made them get an actual picture of the citizens’ problems. Under your leadership, communication has majorly been a one-way street. We would not count social media in this simply for one reason – the response to problems raised over these mediums has not been regular. A simple hashtag search of different problems will show you how a majority of such problems remain unaddressed.
   We have personally been a user of the CPGRAMS portal but have seen that apart from forwarding of letters, there is very minimal action on the ground. Of course, the optics of it all looks interesting but of what use is it if the ultimate result is naught?

   Numerous world leaders have come out and held multiple press conferences to answer questions during the COVID-19 threat. Can we expect that in India? It is necessary to instill actual confidence and for making the Prime Minister’s Office more accountable.

   Interviews to selective news channels will only result in optics and no results.

   An advice – as the Pradhan Sevak, try to sit face-to-face with citizens and listen to their voice. Try and organise Jan Sabhas in mohallas and with Resident Welfare Associations via video conferencing in different cities. Trust me, they will be able to give you a better picture of the problems being faced rather than pre-selected students, teachers, employees and party workers.

3. We remember listening to your inspiring lines when you filed nomination from Varanasi for the General Elections of 2014. You thanked Maa Ganga for summoning you to the city. You accepted that as your destiny. After coming to power, Namami Gange was launched (or maybe renamed) and given a flagship-programme status. The Clean Ganga Fund was pompously launched. An allocation of more than 5 times of what had been spent till then on the Ganga was planned. But what has been the result? Apart from on paper, how were the fund and the government grants utilised on the ground?As has been visible, a mere 10 days of the lockdown due to COVID-19 resulted in far better results than 6 years of your efforts. All that the National Mission for Clean Ganga website boasts of is ‘initiated’ projects. Mr. Prime Minister, when will these projects get completed and when will we see a clean Ganga?

If the Statue of Unity can be built in less than 4 years, why can the other projects not yield result so quickly? If walls can be built in a day when the US President visits India, why can they otherwise not be built so quickly?

Since this is our first letter to you, Mr. Prime Minister, we will keep it limited to these 3 points for now. We know you are always working for the betterment of the nation. We know that our Prime Minister always tries to plan new initiatives for the betterment of Indians. But through our letters, we hope to bring to your notice how poor and slow implementation of the initiatives is ultimately killing the hope.

Forever in hope.