But it would be unfair to Modi to suggest that he was emulating Trump in any of these. If anything, it is the other way around. Modi has been practising some of this magic since the time he was chief minister of Gujarat while Trump’s record starts only with the run-up to the Presidential election, which is much more recent. In fact, Trump seems to have borrowed more ideas from Modi after their meeting in June, which both sides described as a perfect meeting of minds.

Ever since Modi’s Mann ki Baat became a hit with the masses, the Prime Minister’s office has been making an email broadcast to not only an Indian database, but also to an international audience, particularly the Indian Diaspora. But of late, a rather surprising email is popping up in the inboxes of these recipients. In fact, it is even more frequent than the Modi mail campaign. It is from the White House. Its subject is ‘’Your 1600 Daily’ but begins with a graphic of the White House and has President’s headline event of the day as the lead item, followed by Today’s Events, Photo of the Day, White House Updates, What We Are Reading etc. It certainly makes less sense for the Trump mail going out to the Indian Diaspora than the Modi newsletter being mailed to an Indian database and the Indian community overseas.

With the negativity about Trump acquiring ballistic dimensions, the comparison between the two leaders is something that should keep Modi’s media managers on tenterhooks. Trumps outbursts are so unpredictable that it is doubtful whether he himself has any control of what he might say at any given point of time. But no one can fault Modi for such behaviour. Modi’s words are measured and calculated; and their impact often travels beyond the contours of his own expectations, especially when these are directed against Congress party, Sonia Gandhi or Rahul.

A more realistic comparison for Modi would, however, be with Barack Obama, who was undoubtedly one of America’s great orators. Obama speeches were showpieces of eloquence and literary flourish. From ‘Yes, we can do’ to ‘we are the change we seek’, he created a new narrative of hope for the average American. Modi has been no less an orator. A comparison of the oratorial skills of the two is indeed difficult because of the different setting and milieu of the audiences. While Obama’s prose had the sophistication and finesse of poetry, Modi’s observations had a rustic charm that took his message straight to the hearts and minds of ‘a billion and a quarter’ of Indians, kindling in them a new hope for the future. And they seemed to really believe.

The feel good part apart, a comparison with Obama should cause Modi and his media managers a lot of worry. For all the ‘audacity of hope’ that the speeches conveyed, the Obama administration ended up essentially as an ‘all speech and no action’ affair. And this is not a reassuring thought for Modi, whose development rhetoric has so far failed to achieve anything tangible. After three years in power and riding the wave of a new enthusiasm that swept the lengths and breadths of the country, the record of achievements of the Modi government remains pretty dismal.

The first major disappointment was when the government failed to achieve any breakthrough in bringing back the tonnes of black money stashed by Indians in secret foreign bank accounts, which Modi had promised in his election speeches. He had managed to sell a dream of this money being distributed among a billion and quarter Indians, with each account receiving an estimated Rs 15 lakh. The promise conjured up an imagery of rural households becoming rich overnight, whose inmates enjoyed a near-Utopian lifestyle.

But within months of assuming office, it was clear that the whole idea was a dream badly gone sour. The closest that Modi came to was when on the back of demonetisation hoarders of the demonetised notes deposited lakhs and crores of rupees into the accounts of their drivers and domestic helps, which unfortunately belonged to them only in name. Worse still, demonetisation forced people to undergo sufferings of unprecedented scale, many even losing their lives in the process. But the average Indians did not mind it, believing in Modi’s word that it was a sacrifice worth making in the interest of ridding the country of its worst malady. In fact, the landslide victory of BJP in the Uttar Pradesh assembly elections was supposed to have been an endorsement of the plan.

But recently when the final word was pronounced on its effectiveness, it turned out that demonetisation was a cruel joke perpetrated on the Indian public. According to the annual report of the Reserve Bank of India, 98.96 percent of Rs 500 and Rs 1000 notes that were invalidated due to the demonetisation exercise had been returned by the end of June, implying that hardly any black money was unearthed. It was hoped that the adoption of the draconian move would lead to 4-5 lakh crores of rupees worth black money being eliminated from the system. But what really happened was the opposite. Not only did black money failed to show up, it was clear that tax evaders had managed to legalise their unaccounted money using proxies to make deposits, make high-value purchases using back-dated bills and collude with bank officials to exchange old currency. In short, the exercise was a total flop.

But it has extracted a heavy price from the economy, which is in doldrums. The impact of demonetisation is estimated to have reduced GDP growth by about 1.2 percent in the first half of 2017 and the fallout is expected to continue in the next financial year as well. Business confidence has suffered and the non-formal economy has been thrown out of gear. Employment generation has been seriously impaired. And with GST adding to the uncertainties, coupled with the after effects of market-linked pricing of petroleum products, yet with its benefits failing to reach the consumers while fattening state coffers and those of private monopoles, life under the Modi dispensation is losing all its charm. And the social media, which Modi used to telling effect for the build-up of hype during the election campaign, is beginning to boomerang on him with videos of his own tirade against the then government for repeated fuel prices, now going viral on twitter and facebook. (IPA Service)