While Dude is a term made famous by Jeff Bridges in Big Lebowski, it probably best describes a person who is supremely confident about himself, has an air of coolness about him and who goes about his daily chores with least regard for the hubris around him. By this definition, Narendra Modi probably qualifies to be the Dude of the country right now.
Think about what he has done till now...the Nawaz Sharif meeting that Manmohan Singh could not manage in 10 years, NaMo pulled it off on his first day. He scraps the stupid EGOMs and GOMs in his first 15 days....asks politicians to avoid using family members in their offices, tells bureaucrats to work on Saturdays..incentive scheme for central government employees...list goes on. Even if all of this would amount to nothing, NaMo has at least scored big on perception. The guy is truly in a Dude mood. And this Dudeness gets even more amplified by the sorry figure that Manmohan Singh cut in the last 4 years. The guy was a disaster, the worst wound inflicted on the country since independence (and I am not discounting Deve Gowdas and IK Gujrals of years gone by).
Think about what he has done till now...the Nawaz Sharif meeting that Manmohan Singh could not manage in 10 years, NaMo pulled it off on his first day. He scraps the stupid EGOMs and GOMs in his first 15 days....asks politicians to avoid using family members in their offices, tells bureaucrats to work on Saturdays..incentive scheme for central government employees...list goes on. Even if all of this would amount to nothing, NaMo has at least scored big on perception. The guy is truly in a Dude mood. And this Dudeness gets even more amplified by the sorry figure that Manmohan Singh cut in the last 4 years. The guy was a disaster, the worst wound inflicted on the country since independence (and I am not discounting Deve Gowdas and IK Gujrals of years gone by).
The question is where does the Dude go from here...after this cool start. Somehow the problem seems simple to resolve and NaMo seems to be know how to do it. My own experience of working with government was that the laid down law is not the problem. The problem is that very few who have to implement the law feel the pressure to do it. In fact, RTI and CAGs and CVCs have scared the babudom to completely avoid taking any decision. The Dude seems to be know this. Another Dude, Arun Showrie, articulated it beautifully when he said that the new government does not face a legislation challenge...all the right legislation exists. Only thing missing is the confidence in the bureaucracy that they can go ahead and do the right thing. Someone will take care of their back. Dude seems to have done this very successfully in Gujarat and now it is to be seen whether he can do it from Delhi as well.
Lets see...America elected a Dude in 2008 and he turned out to be a big disaster. India's Dude seems to have a better chance since he has managed a state for last 14 years. And, as I said earlier, even if it ends up in nothing, at least for the time being, ministers are posting tweets post midnight with policy announcements!!
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