Since taking over in 2014, Prime Minister Narendra Modi has taken a slew of legislative as well as executive actions that have come to shape his premiership.
While some of these actions are in line with the foundational principles of Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), the others are in line with the policy framework that he has adopted.
In terms of legislation, the major decisions include the goods and services tax (GST), the abolition of triple talaq, the abrogation of Article 370, and the introduction of new criminal laws. Among executive actions, the major decisions include the demonetisation, the Agnipath scheme for recruitment in the Indian Army, the Aatmanirbhar Bharat initiative, the Ayushman Bharat initiative, etc.
Here we take a look at the 10 major policy decisions of the Modi government since 2014:
1. Demonetisation
In 2016, Modi announced in an address to the nation that Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 notes would cease to be legal tender. He further said new notes of denominations 500 and 2,000 would be introduced.
Overnight, the vast bulk of currency in circulation ceased to have any value overnight. For weeks, people lined up at banks as they sought to replace their old notes with the new.
The idea behind the move was said to curb the black money in circulation in a cash-dependent economy. The critics, however, have said that the move failed to curb corruption and instead brought hardships to commoners and small businesses that relied on cash for their everyday transactions.
2. GST
In 2017, the parliament cleared the way for the implementation of the GST under the ‘one nation-one tax’ regime.
In a midnight function in the historic Central Hall of the Parliament Complex, Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the then-President Pranab Mukherjee initiated the implementation of the GST on the intervening night of June 30 and July 1. It was the biggest tax reform since Independence and the midnight set-up was identical to the one at the time of Independence on August 15, 1947.
The GST clubbed more than a dozen taxes such as sales tax, value added tax (VAT), and local taxes into one GST.
The Opposition led by Congress boycotted the function and has since continued to criticise the GST. In the political rhetoric, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi has dubbed the GST as ‘Gabbar Singh Tax’ after the infamous villain Gabbar Singh from the film ‘Sholay’.
3. Triple talaq law
In 2019, Parliament passed a law to abolish the Muslim practice of ’triple talaq’.
Until the passage of the law, a Muslim husband could simply divorce his wife by verbally saying ’talaq’ thrice.
The bill was introduced in 2017 and was finally brought in 2019 after the Supreme Court declared the practice illegal in a landmark 2018 judgement.
The move was hailed as a major step towards women empowerment and bringing Muslim women within the folds of a broader marital rights framework. It was seen in sharp contrast to the ‘Shah Bano case’ of 1985 when the then-Congress government had overruled the landmark Supreme Court judgement granting Muslim women the right to alimony through the parliamentary route to appease the conservative section of the Muslim population.
4. Article 370 abrogation
In 2019, the Modi government abrogated Article 370 and went on to reorganise the state of the state of Jammu and Kashmir into two Union Territories of J&K and Ladakh. The abrogation ended the special status that the J&K had had for seven decades: a separate constitution, separate flag, and a slew of nativist laws that barred the right of Indians from outside the state in J&K and also limited the rights of state’s women.
In 2019, firstly, the Modi government brought a new presidential order and used the inherent provisions of Article 370 to scrap the special status of Jammu and Kashmir.
As the J&K’s Vidhan Sabha was in suspension at the time, the presidential order said the assembly’s rights will be with the governor, explained Kaushik Deka in India Today at the time.
“The governor is an appointee of the Central government, and therefore, Parliament now stands in for the state legislative assembly…After this Shah [Home Minister Amit Shah] moved a statutory resolution in the Rajya Sabha which recommended that the President issue a notification, using Clause 3 of Article 370, to declare that all clauses of Article 370 would cease to be operative and that all provisions of the Indian Constitution would apply to the state of Jammu and Kashmir. This, in effect, rendered Article 370 null and void even if it had not been repealed,” noted Deka at the time.
The Article 370 was first of the three foundational principles of the BJP to be fulfilled. The other two being the Ram Mandir in Ayodhya and the implementation of the uniform civil code (UCC).
In December 2023, the Supreme Court upheld the abrogation of Article 370 for scrapping Jammu and Kashmir’s special status and consequent complete integration with the rest of India.
5. Ram Mandir Trust
In 2020, months after the landmark Supreme Court judgement in the Ram Janmabhoomi-Babari Masjid case in favour of the deity Lord Ram, Modi announced the formation of ‘Sri Ramjanambhoomi Tirath Kshetra’ for the construction of Ram Mandir in Ayodhya. The temple was formally inaugurated in January 2024.
Modi said that under the Ayodhya Act, in line with the SC’s verdict, the government had decided to transfer the 67.7 acres land acquired in Ayodhya to the trust for the development of the temple.
The construction of the Ram Mandir was the fulfilment of the second foundational principle of the BJP.
6. New criminal code
In December 2023, the Modi government revamped the criminal laws of India by tabling three new bills to replace British-era code.
The Indian Penal Code (IPC), 1860, was replaced by Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, 2023; Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC), 1973, by Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita, 2023; and Indian Evidence Act, 1872, to by Bharatiya Sakshya Bill, 2023. The three bills were passed the same month. The laws came into implementation last month.
The new laws, which have been both praised and criticised for various provisions, are the biggest revamp of criminal laws in Indian history.
7. Economically Weaker Section (EWS) reservation
In 2019, the parliament passed the 103rd Amendment to the Constitution of India, which made way for 10 per cent reservation for the economically weaker sections (EWS).
It was a landmark moment in the affirmative action policy as so far only social backwardness was the criteria for reservation and quotas. By adding the financial status as the criteria, the scope of affirmative action was broadened. This was also controversial as reservation was always deemed as a response to social backwardness and, moreover, the 10 per cent EWS quota took the reservation beyond the 50 per cent cap instituted by the Supreme Court.
The EWS reservation was challenged in the Supreme Court and the court upheld it in a verdict in 2022.
8. Agnipath scheme for military recruitment
In line with the reformist streak, the Modi government announced the Agnipath military recruitment scheme in 2022.
Under the schemes, soldiers dubbed Agniveer will be recruited for four years and only 25 per cent of them will be retained upon the completion of the four-year tenure. The scheme also does away from the caste- and region-based recruitment into the various regiments and starts the recruitment on all India, all-class basis.
The scheme has been widely criticised for taking away job security from the soldiers as 75 per cent or recruits will be shunted out after four years.
9. Ayushman Bharat
In 2018, Modi launched the Ayushman Bharat – Pradhan Mantri Jan AarogyaYojana (AB-PMJAY) and hailed it as the world’s largest government-funded healthcare programme. The main part of the initiative is the Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana (PM-JAY).
Under PM-JAY, each family is provided with health insurance coverage of Rs 5 lakh per year for secondary and tertiary care hospitalisation. As per the government, 12 crore families covering around 40 per cent of the Indian population are covered by the insurance.
10. Aatmanirbhar Bharat
In the midst of Covid-19 pandemic when India as well as the world was dealing with an economic downturn, the Modi government announced ‘Aatmanirbhar Bharat’ initiative to make India self-reliant in various areas. The initiative is part of the government’s efforts to boost manufacturing in India and curb reliance on imports that only make India dependent on foreign players but also affect the balance of trade.
Since the initiative’s announcement, the Modi government has also floated production-linked incentives (PLIs) for various industries. Under the PLIs, incentives such as subsidies and other regulatory relaxations are given if products covered by the scheme, such as electronics and pharmaceuticals, are produced in India. The scheme along with other steps over the years has meant that several companies now manufacture mobile phones in India and the reliance on imports in the domain of pharmaceuticals has also fallen.
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Article 370 to triple talaq & new criminal code: Top 10 policy actions of Modi govt since 2014
