Narendra Modi is running a coalition government for the first time and its challenges are troubling him. The government has had to back down from many of its decisions.
It is a coincidence that the NDA government led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi has completed 100 days on the day of the Prime Minister’s 74th birthday. On one hand, there is praise of the achievements of 100 days and on the other hand, there are wishes and greetings for the Prime Minister’s birthday. Newspapers are full of advertisements for the start of Seva Saptah. On his birthday, the Prime Minister inaugurated and laid the foundation stone of projects worth thousands of crores of rupees in Odisha. A day before this, in a program in his home state, the Prime Minister claimed that his government has started projects worth Rs 15 lakh crore in the first 100 days itself. Union Home Minister Amit Shah gave details of the government’s achievements in a press conference on Tuesday on the completion of 100 days of the government.
There is no point in giving details of 100 days of work of a government which has been in power for more than 10 years. But since this is the first time Modi has to run a coalition government and decisions have to be taken or decisions have to be cancelled under direct or indirect pressure of the alliance parties, the party must have felt the need to boast about its achievements. Through this, it is also being told that the government is not under pressure. It is neither under pressure of the coalition nor is it feeling any kind of pressure due to the strong opposition.
But whatever message the government may create, the reality is that it is feeling pressure due to the strong opposition and the alliance. That is why it had to decide to send the Waqf Board Bill to the Joint Parliamentary Committee. It took a U-turn on the issue of lateral entry in government services and also had to change its old stand in the matter of pension of central government employees. It also seems to be getting ready for caste census. The action of central agencies has also slowed down and within 100 days of BJP’s seats being reduced in the Lok Sabha elections and the formation of a coalition government, all the opposition leaders have come out of jail. Obviously, it has shown a practical attitude and made many compromises. However, the government seems ready to move forward on controversial issues ranging from Waqf Board Bill to Uniform Civil Code and ‘One Country, One Election’. Only then it will be interesting to see how the government resolves controversial political issues in the future.