With the Narendra Modi government set to complete its second year in office on 25 May, the government has started preparing its report card detailing the “positive changes” that have come in the country due to the various initiatives of the government. This time, unlike the past practice where party leaders and ministers were asked to spread the information about the good work done by the government, the Centre will be asking experts from various fields, including columnists and journalists, to speak about the “positive changes” that have come in their areas of expertise.
According to government officials who are involved in this exercise, a conscious effort was being made to publicise the good work of the government through non-political entities rather than spreading the message through party leaders.
“The words of these non-political entities, who we are already in the process of approaching, carry weight and if they write and speak objectively about the positive effects of the government’s policies, it will have much more impact than the same being conveyed by our party members,” a BJP leader familiar with the development said.
Officials involved in the task said that the “positive changes” that have happened in the field of agriculture, foreign affairs, roads, railways, defence and health, among others, will be given more focus while highlighting the good work of the government.
One economist who has been requested to write on the “positive changes” in the field of business environment in the country said that the write-up will be based on actual figures. “The idea is not to praise the government wholeheartedly, but to bring out what changes have come in the past two years, changes that can be substantiated through facts and figures. I obviously am not going to write something that has actually not happened on the ground, but I will also not miss out on the benefits of the Jan Dhan Yojana or the Mudra Bank,” he said.
Officials in various ministries, too, are busy in collecting and collating data from their ministries which will be used to showcase the “positive changes”. “A small team of officials have been put on this (to collect and collate data). Ministers want that figures that show their ministries in a positive light should be highlighted. Some of the other fields, where the numbers are not so encouraging, are likely to be left out while compiling data,” an official with one of the ministries associated with welfare work said.