In these final phases of my life, the last thing I had looked forward to was an election with such limited choices — not in terms of the number of parties but in terms of narratives within which we choose the leaders who would govern us.
The incumbents can claim — partially rightly — that they have managed to steer the economy to a relatively high growth path in very difficult circumstances, with the broken balance sheet they inherited in 2014, self-inflicted wounds like demonetisation, and significant global headwinds including COVID.
Commendable macroeconomic management, massive public investments in infrastructure adopting quintessential Keynesian principles, a state-of-the-art digital highway with a scaleable, multi-dimensional technology backbone enabling state-of-the-art digital services, and a safety cushion of free rations for the underprivileged during this period of transformation (through the trickle-down effect) is the mantra for making a Viksit Bharat.
Add to it an enhanced domestic defence manufacturing capability, creditably managing separatism, terrorism and Naxalite insurgency, and an overall assertive foreign policy — and we have a government which could legitimately be viewed by its supporters as having delivered reasonably well.