[KrishnaShripad]

Because, believe it or not, plenty of Indians are satisfied with the current Government in India. We have had shit Governments for more than 70 years. So don't be surprised if Indians don't support Western media narratives on Indian Government (which is mostly fabricated/fake).

[webartisan]

I think you should speak for yourself instead of for all Indians. You believing or not believing something has little effect on facts. Bullying everyone into believing your unquestioned love for the present day government is rather disenginious.

[throwaway384629]

Can you please name top 3 things for which you think Indians are satisfied with the current Government in India? What are few things that have changed from the last 70 years?

[KrishnaShripad]

1. Abrogation of Article 370 and removing Special Status accorded to Jammu and Kashmir, reintegrating it with India. This has been the bone of contention that has caused weakness in the Northern borders of India with Pakistan. Multiple Wars have been fought and lots of terror attacks took place on Indian soil which was used by Pakistani terrorists passing through this State specifically. This was literally a 70 year old issue which was left unsettled by the first Prime Minister of India: Jawaharlal Nehru. Many considered it impossible to Abrogate the Article (which included eminent lawyers). Securing borders is primary importance for Indians and it was only done after 70 years.

2. Implementing GST (Goods and Service Tax). Before we had 12 different taxes that we had to pay (including VAT). All of it was subsumed into 1 tax code bringing India on par with Democracies across the World which had 1 indirect taxation methodology. GST was delayed by 2 decades due to successive weak coalition Governments. This caused India to lag behind majorly. Sure there were multiple technical bottlenecks (with the system crashing multiple times when it was launched) but that has now largely been resolved and simplified.

3. Citizenship Amendment Act. This was passed to ensure that Refugees (from minority religions) who fled Religious persecution in neighboring Islamic Nations of Pakistan, Afghanistan and Bangladesh were given fast-track Citizenship. Most of these refugees had landed in India in the 1970s after the Indo-Pakistan War (which involved US and the West supporting theocratic State of Pakistan while Soviet Union supported India). India won the War, breaking Pakistan into two parts, with one part liberated as Bangladesh. Before the War started, there was major Religious persecution of minorities in East Pakistan (now Bangladesh) which resulted in genocide [1]. Estimated 2,000,000 people escaped persecution and landed in India seeking India's intervention. India did liberate Bangladesh but did not decide on the future of Refugees for the next 40+ years. Those Refugees were finally granted Citizenship on a fast track basis.

4. Muslim Women (Protection of Rights on Marriage) Act. This Act (also called Triple Talaq Bill) was passed by the Indian Parliament to make "instant divorce/Talaq" a punishable offense thereby restoring the dignity of minority Muslim women (who used to be earlier divorced by their husbands over SMS/WhatsApp by just writing Talaq, Talaq, Talaq 3 times — called Talaq-e-Biddat).

5. Economy flourished: India's GDP shot up from being 10th largest in 2014 (when Modi came to power) to now 5th largest economy. Share in Global GDP rose from 2.6% to 3.2%. FDI inflows shot up from 2.1% to 6.7%. In combating Climate Change crisis, rose from 31st to 10th. Ease of doing business shot up from 142nd to 63rd place. People started noticing real change on the ground. Highways being built at record pace. Electrification close to 99% all over India.

6. Settling the Ayodhya Dispute, which happens to be the most important issue for Hindus.

7. Unified Payments Interface. One of the best technological implementations I have seen and is quite shocking that it was a Government initiative no less. I can transfer cash to anyone instantly by just knowing their UPI ID (which is similar to email ID). No need to share bank details. No need for waiting for a day or two for transfers to happen. No need to use credit/debit cards. Chances of fraud minimized big time.

8. Reducing/eliminating big scale corruption on National/Federal/Central level. India was rocked by multi-billion dollar corruption scandals for 70+ years. This is now thankfully a thing of the past. Corruption still exists in some pockets (and in some States as well) but it is largely reduced.

There are a lot more. But I have only listed a few which I am happy with. A mix of social + economic issues that were resolved.

There are other issues where the Government underperformed IMHO:

1. Passing the landmark Farm Act and then backtracking on it due to pressure from rich farmers and Khalistani Terror groups operating out of Canada. This set back India's farming sector by 2 decades. This reform was much awaited and would have propelled India's farm sector to great heights. But politics and propaganda won over common sense reforms. The only time I was extremely upset with the current Government.

2. Not tackling home grown terror organizations with an iron fist due to fear of being perceived as a "fascist party" by International Media and International Organizations. Lots of Islamic terror organizations were floated that worked without any fear (with many openly tying with ISIS, Al Qaeda etc) because the current Government chose not to act against them. Even when majority of the supporters pushed the Government to ban such organizations it seemed shaky and did not wish to act decisively. It ultimately had to once these organizations started talking about breaking India (by staging a "protest" — read it as riots and communal violence — in the "Chicken neck" region and cut off entire North-Eastern India from rest of the mainland) and the Anti-CAA riots broke out which resulted in communal clashes. Then the Government had to intervene and ban these Organizations. I wish it had done sooner. Innocent people would not have suffered.

3. Demonetization, as a concept, was a disaster. Though it propelled India as a whole to move towards online banking (see the point on UPI above), the core objective for bringing in Demonetization: reduction/elimination of black money, was not met.

4. Hasty implementation of Aadhaar without consultation with Privacy Experts and Tech professionals. In fact, this Government performed poorly when it came to Privacy issues and surveillance. It is trying to emulate both US and China in this aspect. Which I do not agree with or support.

5. Buying out elected representatives from Opposition Parties to form Government. This is one thing I hate about the current dispensation. Though this is not new and has been going on since India got Independence and became a Democracy, I expected this Government to not indulge in horse trading. As those coming into the Party do not necessarily have the same ideological inclinations, commitments or dedication as a ground-level Party worker. This party level corruption needs to end.

6. No strong Opposition. Currently, the Indian Opposition Parties are divided, with no strong leaders heading them. They are directionless and visionless. The oldest Party of India (the Indian National Congress) is headed by a buffoon who spends most of his time in Italy and only occasionally visits India when there is some contentious issue and then goes back to Italy to party. There is no serious contender to Modi right now. All the good leaders are gravitating to one party. And this is a bad thing IMHO. India definitely needs a strong Opposition to have the right checks and balance. But definitely not the jokers we have in the Opposition now.

[1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1971_Bangladesh_genocide