Example field genius communication script
Every economic indicator had gone wrong except one: Inflation. Some of the data was so embarrassing that the Modi government had to either hide it, rewrite it, or change the formula and produce friendlier data, as on GDP numbers. Worse, joblessness was already reaching a high that would be alarming in a democracy. It didn’t bother anybody but his hapless opposition and marginalised editorialists like us.īy the summer of 2019, our economy had already been in a tailspin. By that time, demonetisation had already deflated India’s economy job losses, and trade, rural and farmer distress had set in. If the concept of “It’s the economy, stupid” worked, he should not have swept the Uttar Pradesh elections of 2017. But barring, say, the first 24 months to some extent, he has never delivered on that promise. Now, we know that Modi won power in 2014 on the promise of massive economic growth, jobs and development on the ‘Gujarat Model’. It shows in our crashing rankings on all key global indices. On almost every economic and even social indicator, India has been posting a decline. Negative growth is rightly blamed on the pandemic, but it isn’t as if this patient was in the pink of health before the virus struck. Lately, India has had at least 7 out of 8 quarters of growth decline. The stall began with demonetisation in 2016-17.
Let’s look at India.Īfter Modi’s first two years, the economy has stalled, and then declined. In 2016, this was the promise that brought Donald Trump to power, as also Modi in 2014. But that seems to have changed worldwide now. For almost a quarter century, a leader who promised or delivered a better economy won, or was re-elected. And, whatever the language or idiom, the logic passed the test of time. A kind of globalised, American Prashant Kishor. The transnational appeal of the idea was also understandable because James Carville, the famous political “consultant” who coined it for Clinton, also advised dozens of leaders across the world. In election after election, across democracies in the world, the line has been repeated.
In his 1992 presidential campaign, Bill Clinton immortalised the line, “It’s the economy, stupid”.