Politicians are good at making promises. Prime Minister Narendra Modi is no exception. In fact, he particularly excels at it. But if the proof of the pudding lies in its eating, without exception every politician falls short. Probably, marketing dreams, promising good life is an integral part of politics everywhere.

Here we started with Jawaharlal Nehru offering socialism to wipe the tears of a long-suffering people starved of two square meals a day. His daughter, Indira Gandhi, rose very high on the catchy slogan of Garibi Hatao. Half a century later, millions of Garibs are seen on India’s roads trekking miserably back home to their villages from the poverty and squalor of towns they are leaving behind due to the lockdown on their daily income.

 In between, we have had a number of other pretenders to the New Delhi throne whose stint was largely unremarkable, barring one. Manmohan Singh’s promise of unshackling the animal spirits of the entrepreneurial class to ensure handsome economic growth, too, remained largely unfulfilled.

 Now come to Modi. Into his sixth year, he has promised to complete the process of reforms which the Narasimha Rao-Manmohan Singh team had begun in the 90s but which was abandoned halfway, without allowing it to realise its full potential. Surprisingly, in the midst of the coronavirus lockdown, the Modi Sarkar revived the reforms package.

 It undertook to free land and labour markets, carry out structural reforms in the financial sector, open up the economy for foreign direct investment, and remove obstructions in the way of foreign companies setting up shop here. It also promised to free up the mining sector, allowing for public-private partnership. Likewise, it promised to remove caps on foreign investment in most sectors of the economy.

 All these promises constituted what was said to be the Rs. 20-lakh crore economic salvage package which cumulatively constituted, it was claimed by the Prime Minister, ten percent of the GDP. Of course, in real terms the package was about one percent of the GDP. In fact, the main part of the package had little to do with the corona pandemic. The long-overdue reforms could have been announced any time before or after the pandemic.

 Be that as it may, the Prime Minister’s penchant to make tall promises was yet again on display in his inaugural address to the 125th annual session of the Confederation of Indian Industry on Tuesday morning through a video-link. To the assembled captains of industry and commerce, Modi must have sounded overly optimistic when he said, “Yes, we will definitely get our growth back.” How and when were the obvious questions answers to which may not have been clear to his audience, the very people on whose shoulders lies the responsibility to get the economic engine running again.

The PM, however, was full of hope. “Corona may have slowed our speed of growth but India has now moved ahead from lockdown with the phase one of unlock. Unlock Phase–I has reopened a large part of the economy.” The last claim must have sounded unreal to lots of people in his distinguished audience since they knew first-hand that despite the partial lifting of restrictions much of the economy was yet to get back to pre-lockdown normal due to the absence of workers, disruption in supply chains and a lack of demand.

 It would be a while before things return to normal, if at all. But the PM on Tuesday morning appeared to paint a positive picture despite the actual economic actors entertaining genuine misgivings about getting back on stream any time soon, post-lockdown. Displaying his weakness for alliteration and acronyms, which increasingly elicits snide comments, Modi talked of ‘intent, inclusion, investment, infrastructure and innovation’ as crucial for India to revert to a high-growth trajectory.

On intent, the Rs. 20-lakh crore package is certainly not wanting. But where are the rest of the elements, i.e., investment, innovation, etc.? In fact, where is the evidence of the far-reaching reforms in labour, land, financial sector, foreign investment, et al? As they say, the way to hell is paved with good intentions. No government in free India has been lacking in good intentions. The only shortcoming has always been delivery, performance, will to put into action what was promised in words. We are afraid Modi will fall far short in keeping his promise..