Now for the serious stuff

NARENDRA MODI would like to believe he has broken the mould as India’s leader. He is personally powerful and keener on a big international role for his country than his predecessors were. As he says, “there are huge global expectations for India.” Showing more openness than earlier leaders, he agreed to be interviewed on the eve of his first anniversary in power.

In conversation he is thoughtful, sincere and well briefed. He is driven (staff say he takes no holidays) and can be charming, though he is also intensely self-regarding. For example, he explains his many foreign trips as necessary for the “international community to get an opportunity to assess me directly”.

There are several broad concerns about his record so far. Though he seeks economic growth and national strength, he has not yet shown a clear vision for bringing these about; nor has he appointed the right ministers to deliver sweeping change. He is not speaking up enough for a noisy liberal democracy and the need to protect religious minorities, and he is not showing sufficient tolerance of criticism.

Ask about his vision, and he talks of jobs: “My government is committed to the poor of the country so I need to enhance employment opportunities.” He mentions a new ministry to promote skills, plans for roads and rail, and hopes to boost manufacturing. All of that is sensible but not inspiring. One way forward might be to trust markets more; another might be to invest more in human capital, public health and a world-class university system. But Mr Modi mentions none of these.

Thus he comes over as a cautious policymaker, which is surprising for a fiercely ambitious politician who got an overwhelming mandate a year ago. He seeks grand outcomes, saying India must compete with other emerging markets, secure a greater share of global trade, be “an engine of international growth”. Yet he does not spell out how these goals are to be achieved.

Perhaps, deep down, he is a pro-market reformer who for political reasons dare not speak out. Ask him about his timid approach to selling state assets, for example, and he retorts that recent coal auctions constitute the “biggest divestment in India’s entire history”. As evidence of reform, he claims that his government has done more than any other to untangle impossible labour-market rules. But he is careful also to talk of protecting the “dignity of labour”. The biggest economic reform his government is planning is the introduction of a goods and services tax, in effect an internal trade deal.

However capable Mr Modi may be, he cannot run everything, and he has not done enough to promote other talented individuals. In the course of a long conversation he never once refers to any of his ministers. He tends to say things like “I have created a ministry” or “my government is acting”. When speaking about world affairs, he focuses on his personal rapport with other leaders. He seems to think he is the government.

The ruling BJP is not stuffed with gifted leaders, but there are some. And Mr Modi could draw on people beyond politics. The previous government deserves credit for the creation of Aadhaar, the biometric-identity scheme, by Nandan Nilekani, a former businessman. Similar talent from the private sector could be brought in by Mr Modi.

Trust me, but why?

Yet if Mr Modi wants outsiders to join his government, they need to be able to trust his politics. He needs to speak out for moderation and tolerance and confront the “nutty underbelly” of Hindu nationalists, as one figure in government put it. Even his supporters concede that he has been too silent on religious affairs. All he will say on this is that he is “absolutely committed to the integrity and harmony of India” and that he respects “only one holy book”, the constitution—a line this correspondent first heard from him in 2012. This failure to talk more convincingly about religious tolerance raises suspicions over his own beliefs. He concedes that “perhaps the kind of words that people want to listen to do not come out from my mouth.”

Critics also note that his government is turning increasingly hostile to those it dislikes. In April it, in effect, suspended nearly 9,000 non-government groups. Organisations such as the Ford Foundation, which Mr Modi considers objectionable, find they have less scope for action. Greenpeace’s bank accounts were frozen last month. America’s ambassador to India, Richard Verma, notes that all this has “chilling effects” on democracy.

Mr Modi has made some steady, if not yet spectacular, progress in office so far, but he needs a clearer vision for economic reform, a broader range of talent within his government and a more convincing message of moderation. If he can produce them, the boy who left Vadnagar all those years ago could still become a truly transformative force.