India’s Systems Are Cracking: The Truth About Modi’s Governance Model

0:00 [music] Hello and welcome to our YouTube channel. What does this data say? I AJ Praash. When Narendra Modi entered office in 2014, he sold a dream. A dream of governance so efficient, so transparent, so modern that India would finally break free from its bureaucratic chains. He called it minimum government and maximum governance. But 11 years later, what critics, analysts, former civil servants, global governance indices, and

0:47 official data all point to is the opposite. Maximum government, a bloated PMO and an oversized cabinet. Minimum governance, institutions are weakened, ministers are silenced. and maximum misgovernance. Crisis management, farmers distressed, inflation is high, diplomacy is confused, maximum image building on the other side. Announcements replace action, photos replace policy. This episode is about how India is cracking system by system under a governance model built around one office, one man and one narrative. The

1:35 prime minister's office was once meant to be a lean advisory body. But under Modi, the PMO has transformed into a massive opaque centralized super government. To understand why India's governance has collapsed, we must look at how the PMO made decisions and how it ran away from accountability. Have a look at some instances. The demonetization of 2016 shock, chaos, and zero accountability. One of the largest monetary shocks in global history. RBI data later revealed that 99.31% of the currency returned back. The PMO never took responsibility and the prime

2:23 minister disappeared for days leaving the country confused and panicked. Then the sudden lockdown of 2020, a humanitarian crisis which was created by poor planning announced with only 4 hours notice. Millions of migrant workers were stranded. No transport plan, no food plan, no coordination. The PMO announced a lockdown but offered no administrative blueprint. The mismanagement continued in the second wave of COVID as well. Hospitals collapsed, oxygen shortages, crematoriums were overflowing. The PMO focused on election rallies. Kumba

3:10 optics and image building instead of preparation. The midnight GST rollout of 2017. It was launched with theatrics instead of preparation. GST rates changed over a 100 times since then. Small businesses have suffered immense compliance burden. More recently, the Jagdep Dhanka incident. Dhanka reportedly was sidelined with tensions that were visible. It raises questions of autonomy and respect for constitutional offices. And now the Sanchar Sati U-turn, a policy that was pushed aggressively then withdrawn quietly after a massive

3:56 backlash. Another example of policym without consultation or planning. And what we are going through these days is the Indigo meltdown. Thousands of passengers remain stranded. Communication has been a total failure. The aviation ministry is unprepared and rather absconding. The prime minister's office has taken no responsibility while chaos has unfolded across all major airports in the country. This is not minimum government. This is maximum PMO, minimum planning, zero accountability. Now let's look at the official data proving that PMO is indeed bloated and

4:44 centralized. The total number of personnel in Prime Minister's office today is 301. This is not a small number by any account. These numbers have been picked up from the prime minister's office website. The number of officers on special duty. Well, that count has not been given. It would have been interesting to note how many of the people have been inducted into the prime minister's office by passing the normal bureaucratic system. The size of the council of ministers in 2014 it started

5:34 with total of 45 ministers in which 23 were cabinet minister. Modi had promised minimum government government at that time but later he had to give in to political pressure. Today in 2024 the total number of ministers is 72 out of which 30 are cabinet ministers. We are back to the old model of governance. Modi G has not been able to cut down the number of ministries or departments under him. In fact, the number has gone up by two from 56 to 58 in the last 10 years. So, India is not collapsing but it is cracking one system at a time.

6:22 Electoral trust is weakening. Farmers are sinking. Inflation is crushing households. Communication failures during crisis show internal collapse. Foreign policy has become a very focused photo opportunity. Ministries are paralyzed and the PMO's centralization ensures no one else can lead when the crisis erupts. Let us examine each crack. Crack number one, electoral trust is eroding. Electoral role saw a large unexplained revisions in multiple states. Former chief election commissioners and independent observers raised concerns about the opaque decision making, motorless

7:09 deletions without clear justification, decline in consultation and declining public trust. Even the perception of manipulation, it damages democracy. Crack two, the farmer's distress. The broken promises. Modi promised to double farmers income by 2022. Official NSS data shows this did not happen. Farmers today face stagnant incomes, rising input costs, falling real purchasing power, weak MSP enforcement, lack of crop diversification strategy. This is a national failure driven entirely by the PMO dominance and poor ministerial

7:55 autonomy. Crack three, food inflation. Persistent inflation is crushing household saving. The PMO's economic mismanagement includes failure to stabilize food supply chain, late response to pricing spikes, zero accountability, reliance on free ration distribution. When 80 cr people depend on free food, it mean the economic model is failing. And then let's talk about operation sindur. The crack number four, the operation exposed conflicting statements. no unified spokesperson and delayed clarity. This happened because ministries cannot act without PMO

8:43 clearance. Government freezes when one office controls everything. Crack five. I'll talk a little bit more on this. The foreign policy missteps. India's foreign policy since 2014 is widely criticized for privileging spectacle over strategy which has eroded consistency, reduced room for maneuver and dented India's image as a steady principled actor. Analysts note that the neighborhood first push has morphed into interventionist leader centric diplomacy that backfired in Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and the Maldiv. India's heavy bet on

9:30 Shik Hassina despite rising domestic resentment and authoritarian drift left New Delhi sideline after her fall and fed anti-India sentiment including India outstyle rhetoric in the region in the Maldiv the election of Muhammad Muizu on an explicitly India out platform symbolized a visible loss of goodwill around India's periphery. Foreign policy commentators argue that Modi's government often overplays proximity to great powers, then scrambles to rebalance, undermining the image of a strategic autonomy. The embrace of the US and Quad followed by renewed

10:16 high-profile outreach to Russia during the Ukraine war has drawn criticism for creating bad optic that satisfy neither Moscow nor western powers and complicate India's claim to moral high ground. Studies of the last decade describe a diplomacy driven by leader centric branding and photo ops where headline visits and mega event outstrip substantive predictable positions. Critics point out operation Synindu ceasefire being first announced by the US president not by New Delhi as emblematic of diminished agency and the perception that India's reactive not

11:04 agenda setting in crisis photo ops replaced negotiations speeches replace strategy diplomacy became drama crack number six are invisible ministers. Even though Modi has 72 ministers, the public sees none during crisis. Because the PMO scripts everything, ministers fear contradicting the PM. No one has autonomy. All public communication is centralized. Observers across the security and economic establishment argue that Narendra Modi runs an intensely centralized system in which key ministers often appear sidelined on major decision. During

11:52 Balacord, Galwan and Operation Sindur, the political narrative and operational credit were consistently projected upwards to the prime minister's leadership with with Rajnat Singh largely reduced to postfacto endorsement rather than visible autonomous crisis manager. In economic policy, reports describe the prime minister's office as effectively running the finance ministry with Nirmala Sitha Raman criticized as a rubber stamp finance minister who reads out a PMOd driven line rather than shaping strategy herself. So what you see is paralysis at the top. A

12:38 government that cannot govern. Parliamentary functioning, media engagement and governance in quality. Again, parliamentary functioning, media engagement and governance quality indicators together show a worrying drift over Modi's decade in power. Parliament's role is shrinking. Studies of the 16th and 17th Lok Sabha show fewer sitting days, falling productivity and sharp rise in laws passed with little debate or committee scrutiny reinforcing executive dominance. Analysts note frequent disruptions, bypassing of committees and budgets

13:23 rushed through with minimal discussion as signs that parliament's deliberative core has weakened. And then the famous no press conferences by Narendra Modi. Naril Modi has effectively not held an open unscripted press conference as a prime minister, relying instead on one-way speeches and tightly managed interviews with friendly outlets. Commentators link this to an aversion to tough questioning and a desire to control narrative rather than any admitted inferiority complex. attributing psychological motives remain speculative and not evidence-based.

14:09 The governance indicators of the Modi government are on the down slide. The World Bank's Worldwide Governance Indicators database shows India scores on voice and accountability, government effectiveness, regulatory quality and rule of law either stagnating or declining in the second half of the 2010 and into the early 2020. So what was promised? Minimum government, maximum governance. What India got? Maximum government, minimum governance, maximum misgovernance. A PMO that acts without accountability. Ministers who remain invisible, policies

14:57 announced without planning and rolled back without explanation. Institutions cracking. a governance model that prioritizes the prime minister's image over the nation's stability. I think India deserves better. I would like to hear from all of you. Thank you for watching. I am a Prakash.