The government on Thursday marked the completion of one month in office with a promotional campaign that sought to showcase the “clear vision, concrete action” on display in the last 30 “decisive” days.
While the Information and Broadcasting Ministry released a five-and-a-half-minute-long video on YouTube to raise a toast to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, his office came out with a poster that provided in bullet points the achievements of the government.
With the tagline ‘Action, Not Acts: Towards a Developed India,’ the poster flags the “skill, scale and speed” mantra of governance. And the achievements listed are — setting up an SIT to bring back black money, the 10-point agenda for speedy development, improved work culture across the government, abolishing the Groups of Ministers and Empowered Groups of Ministers, increasing the height of the Narmada Dam, Mr. Modi choosing Bhutan for his first foreign visit instead of an economic powerhouse and enhanced cooperation with the SAARC nations.
The video also follows the same trajectory, with the focus mainly on Mr. Modi. His ministerial colleagues feature fleetingly in camera sweeps of Cabinet meetings in the video christened “Pradhanmantri ki prathmiktayein’’ (Prime Minister’s priorities).
Beginning with his swearing-in as premier, the video quotes foreign policy experts’ description of his invitation to SAARC leaders as a “master-stroke,” which delivered immediate results in the form of release of Indian prisoners by Pakistan and Sri Lanka.
While the weak monsoon is billed as a possible challenge for the new government, the video points to the efforts being made by the government to deal with a drought-like situation. It claims that foreign tourist arrivals have gone up by 10 per cent over the corresponding period last year.
