Modi pledges to work for all

The new Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi of Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in his first major policy speech at Lok Sabha spoke in a conciliatory note. He focused on all citizens of India, irrespective of caste or religion, and showed his eagerness to improve their lives and spur development in the second-most populous nation in the world.
Lack of economic opportunity, unbridled corruption, lack of security among the people, particularly women, and shortage of electricity and high-profile crimes propelled BJP to power in the general election in May this year.
Modi was visibly perturbed when he mentioned about two recent incidents of crime: the rape and hanging of two teenage girls, and the gruesome killing of a young Muslim by the members of Rashtriya Swaayamsevak Sangh (RSS), a Hindu fundamentalist group to which he himself belonged until 1980.
The new Prime Minister, referring to the said criminal incidents, in his speech to parliament said, "These incidents call for deep introspection and the government must act sternly. The country won't wait for long and our own conscience would not forgive us".  This is a good beginning as the Prime Minister of India, but the words should not remain mere rhetoric.  The people of India want to see action for putting a stop to the sad killings.
Power shortage and sanitary problems in India are acute. Recently, a man was killed by a tiger when he went out of his house to respond to the call of nature in a forest in the northern Indian state of Uttarakhand. A forest officer admitted to the media that villagers do not have toilets at their homes and they use the forest areas to answer nature's call. This is not a problem in the Indian villages alone, even the suburbs of Mumbai, commercial capital of India, are no exception.
Power outages in the country have become a chronic problem indeed. In the last couple of days, temperature has risen sharply in New Delhi, Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan, and Haryana which had caused power outages. Shortage of power poses a serious problem to Bharatiya Janata Party. President Pranab Mukherjee in his inaugural speech to Lok Sabha assured that the present government would work hard to provide round-the-clock power to Indians by 2022. According to an estimate of the World Bank, 300 million people in India are enjoying limited or no access to electricity.
Prime Minister Modi, however, assured the executives of industries and the general citizens that he can revamp the power sector as he had done in Gujarat state.
While speaking on the thanks giving motion on the inaugural speech by President Pranab Mukherjee, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on June 12 spoke of reaching out to all groups in and outside parliament, and reminded the lawmakers that focused activity for the welfare of the Muslims does not mean appeasement for Muslims. He stressed the need for the welfare of all sections of the people of India.
It means Narendra Modi has deviated from his high-voltage election campaign. That signals a positive trend for all sections of people in India.
Narendra Modi's dream to transform representative democracy into a vibrant, participatory one and an empowered and inspired people towards inclusive and sustainable development needs full cooperation of the regional power of India. The Prime Minister understands the situation in India, and that is why he has assured the lawmakers that the country will be governed in a spirit of 'collectivism' with political rivals and the state governments. If he succeeds in doing so, radical changes will take place in India.
The writer is a retired diplomat from Bangladesh and former president of Nova Chapter of Toastmaster International Club. amjad.21@gmail.com