Dinesh Kamath's Editorial 'Why so much focus on ‘Holidays’?' that was published in Newsband

Why so much focus on ‘Holidays’?

The Narendra Modi government seems to be focusing on the red letter days in the calendar. Teachers’ Day on September 5 became Guru Utsav, Gandhi Jayanthi on October 2 was used to showcase Mr. Modi’s Clean India campaign. Indira Gandhi’s death anniversary on October 31 was observed as National Unity Day in commemoration of the birth anniversary of Sardar Patel, one of Mr. Modi’s heroes. Even the birthdays of Jawaharlal Nehru and Indira Gandhi on November 14 and November 19 were sought to be turned into markers of his Clean India drive. Now, Christmas will be Good Governance Day, to mark the birthday of former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee.

The infusion of new meaning into traditional public events and holidays seems to be a deeply political act. It is high time for the Modi government, especially the Ministry of Human Resource Development, to think more in terms of policies and programmes than in terms of anniversaries and competitions.

The public should demand a day for accountability where the public will grill every senior minister including the PM on all matters in front of a justice of the apex court. It should be made mandatory for the Ministers to answer every question and the replies will have legal status to be used in any civil litigation or even a probe by the Judiciary if they consider it fit to instigate one on their own. Is the government prepared for this?

We have yet to see any concrete step being taken in our country since Modi came to power. We have been only burdened with unnecessary topics and event. We really expect something to be done for people at ground level. Only making big plan for this vast population is not going to solve day to day problems for people. The previous government already had lots of plan without proper execution. What we actually expect from the current government is solid step which stabilizes middle class.

Modi came to power through a rhetoric of Development. But till today we have not heard anything on development, which would have to be connected with enhancement of our GDP, which is about $2.05 trillion. Instead of planning how and when we may reach the next level of (say) $5 trillion, it is unfortunate that the Government under Modi seems to be more interested in trivial things like Holidays and other "days". What do we make of such meaningless things being given big importance when the big needs are just brushed aside?