A great orator with nothing to say.

The present BJP government NDA-II of Prime Minister Narendra Modi has more in common with the previous Congress led UPA-I and-II governments of Manmohan Singh than the BJP led NDA-I government of Atal Bihari Vajpayee, wrote N Kwatra and S Alexander. Spending on agriculture and rural development was 4.5% under NDA-I, 6.7% under UPA-II and has been 6.8% under Modi. Capital expenditure, which means investments in assets, was 18% under NDA-I, 12% under UPA-II and is 13% under Modi. "India has to make a choice between mindless populism and fiscal prudence....the general elections of 2014 have proved that you don't need populism to win elections,"said Finance Minister Arun Jaitley in his first budget in 2014. Five years later, "Mindless populism is all that the NDA will go to the polls with," wrote Y Aiyer. Unfortunately for Modi, farmers in 6 states, including in Modi's home state of Gujarat, were unimpressed with his income support of Rs 6,000 per year. Only farmers in Telangana are happy, but with the support provided by the state government, and not by Modi. Why has Modi resorted to handouts? "Perhaps because, when judged by his own promises, Modi's term has been a failure," wrote M Sharma. A previous BJP minister Arun Shourie described the present government as "Congress plus cow", but in many ways it is considerably more sinister. Breaking with convention, the government presented a full budget just before general election in April, allowing it to announce a slew of handouts to please its vote bank. Modi launched an assault on all the institutions of the nation, wrote M Joshi, including "the Central Bureau of Investigation, the Reserve Bank of India, the Central Information Commission, the National Statistical Commission, Jawaharlal Nehru University, the Nehru Memorial Museum and Library and so on." Just recently the last two independent members of the National Statistical Commission resigned because the government suppressed a report showing rising unemployment. Although he roams the world like Nehru, Modi is much more like Indira Gandhi, in his assault on institutions, centralizing power and is more socialist than Nehru, wrote S Gupta. Modi has not increased income tax level to 98.75%, like Indira Gandhi did, but he has unleashed a savage tax terrorism on the nation in an attempt to finance his handouts. Even after spending $920 million on advertising Modi is having to distribute handouts. We don't know why because Modi has not held one press conference to explain himself. Despite being a great orator.