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The new Modi cabinet has generated a great deal of excitement and expectations. 

The fresh faces inducted into the Council of Ministers and the sacking of several rank-and-file BJP leaders has spurred mixed reactions. 

Is this a tacit acknowledgement of the government’s monumental failures in Covid-19 and economy management and bruising expeditions when it comes to reforms and regulation in areas like agriculture and the internet?

Or is this a genuine attempt to restructure the order to accelerate governance delivery and tidy performance standards with just 24 months left in the hourglass before the 2024 cycle begins?

Only Narendra Modi has his mind clear on the motivations, others are all speculating.

So let us turn to expectations, chief of all: rebuilding bridges.

The likes of Ravi Shankar Prasad, Prakash Javadekar and Dr. Harsh Vardhan were evidently turning out to be a liability. If one was busy ‘tweeting’ his daily frustration for Twitter, the other was promoting puff pieces on the handling of the second wave written on ‘desi Guardian’ with an all-caps headline. The least said about Dr. Harsh Vardhan’s demeanour and misplaced confidence, the better.

The expectation should now be that the new leadership opens fresh channels of communications with miffed sections of the country: the agitated farmers, the tech titans, the state governments, the unemployed labour, the opposition parties, the digital media platforms and the disenchanted business community.

No amount of technocratic qualification or political heft can get the leader a good deal unless they employ the art of charm and persuasion. If unilateral approaches and confrontational attitudes drive policymaking, it will do anything but achieve desirable outcomes. Worse, it will alienate stakeholders outright and give them a baton to charge you for being uncomplimentary.

So now the expectation lays that the new pool of talent inducted in the Union Council of Ministers will exploit their novel position on the table and present the Modi government’s agenda in a more persuasive fashion.

Instead of trashing social media companies publicly, the Minister can invite their executives and address their concerns over the new IT rules. A short trip to Bengaluru or Hyderabad and a roundtable with their public policy chiefs will be a far better approach in ushering new age regulations for a lucrative industry on the internet.

Likewise, talking to entrepreneur-editors of upstart digital news media platforms and building a free press-friendly oversight charter for the sector will cool rising concerns over censorship and media freedom.

The migrant crisis of 2020 exposed the indifference of the Indian state toward its non-salaried working class. An organisational party leader at the helm of the Labour Ministry can be expected to initiate necessary interventions to expeditiously formalise the country’s vast unorganised labour pool and expand the social security net. Just like he would discipline the large party cadre and scores of poll managers during multi-state elections.

Although the leadership at the Agriculture Ministry remains unchanged, one would expect the Minister to reinitiate dialogue with the farmer unions and make appropriate gestures in good faith. It is surprising, however, that the Prime Minister choose to continue with Narendra Singh Tomar even as the party faces significant challenges from cross-caste unions active in Uttar Pradesh and Punjab, both heading to polls next year.

India needs policy predictability and prudence for it to revive the shattered socio-economic growth story of the last 30 years. For the sake of democracy and India’s future, the Modi government shall now engage and consult all sections to chart out a plan for the country’s recovery from the wounds of the pandemic. A ministerial shakeup in Delhi may just be the first step forward.


Also read: YourTurn/SubscriberWrites: Why people will vote for Modi and BJP again in the next general elections


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