I haven't even included UPI in this which has been an absolute game changer. Anyone with 2 brain cells to rub together would know how transformational UPI has been to India and growth of India in the past few years. But yeah we should neglect all that because the West said so. Sure there are problems in India just like there are problems in every other country in the World. But when it comes to India, the problems are amplified to an unwarranted degree in the West. Maybe because we don't toe the Western line when it comes to many things (like staying non-aligned or not signing the non-proliferation treaty) and the West just doesn't like it. Has been holding a grudge since the 90s when India conducted reciprocal nuclear tests (after China conducted its own nuclear tests). Bill Clinton saw it fit to sanction Democratic India but not Authoritarian CCP. It is not something new. And pre-90s was even worse with the West supporting Dictatorial Islamic Republic of Pakistan against Democratic India.
>> I haven't even included UPI in this which has been an absolute game changer.
Wasn't the work on UPI started in 2009 and the vision statement was prepared in 2012, 2 years before Modi/BJP came to power?
>> In April 2009, National Payment Corporation of India (NPCI) was formed to integrate all the payment mechanisms in India and make them uniform for all retail payments. RBI in 2012 released a vision statement for a period of four years that indicated commitment towards building a safe, efficient, accessible, inclusive, interoperable and authorized payment and settlement system in India. UPI was officially launched in 2016 for public use. [1]
There were plenty of projects that were announced before BJP came to power and was never implemented. Congress was elected twice to implement these very things. Instead they spent all their time indulging in communal nonsense and high ticket corruption. To just put it into perspective: The Finance Minister P Chidambaram (during UPA era) castigated Modi for launching Digital India when he said it makes no sense considering India is not connected with Internet to the last village [1]. And that it will be a failure. The entire Opposition made fun of it in 2017.
So no matter if you have great ideas, if you do not even believe in those ideas let alone execute on them it is as good as dead ideas.
We would have progressed rapidly had UPA not indulged in corruption and working tirelessly to convict Modi in the Gujarat riots cases and instead focused its efforts on doing some actual developmental work, many of those ideas rightfully was thought of in its time (which i'll give credit for). But they lacked big time on execution. Modi had a proven track record in Gujarat which helped him beat Congress in 2014 elections. He just has brought most of Congress's plans to fruition which Congress doesn't like for obvious reasons.
UPA losing power is its own doing more than BJP's coming to power. Heck even Modi keeps taunting Congress in the Parliament saying that most of the policies that Congress opposes today was all their own plans that they never brought to life. That's the reason the Opposition is unable to counter BJP. BJP is just doing exactly what the Opposition promised in its manifesto when it came to development but never delivered.
> Wasn't the work on UPI started in 2009 and the vision statement was prepared in 2012
Is this[1] or is this not P. Chidambaram, Indian Finance Minister during the Congress-led UPA regime, criticizing the government's digital payment plans? You think such a pessimistic guy or his government would have done anything to make UPI a success except in a half-hearted fashion?
There is a saying: success has many fathers while failure is an orphan. No wonder when UPI has turned out to be a resounding success, people either turn up to claim credit or to run down the success of the current government.
