“Viksit” means “developed,” and if “developed” is defined only by metrics like the GDP of a country or state, then “viksit India” and “viksit Nagaland” are just statistical tricks to hoodwink the citizens of India and Nagaland. Yes, India has become the 4th largest economy in the world, with its 4 trillion-plus dollar GDP leaving Japan behind recently. But, in reality, India can surpass Japan only in GDP and population numbers. Forget about even comparing India and Japan in terms of infrastructure and human development, technology, manufacturing, civic sense, social and moral ethics, etc.; they are not even in the same galaxy for comparison.
As the BJP celebrates 11 years of governance and rule under PM Modi, let us highlight some of the available parameters to analyze Modi’s Viksit Bharat with the ground reality.
India’s GDP per capita, the true measure of the average citizen’s standard of living, tells a completely different story. According to the most recent figures from the World Bank, India’s GDP is around $2,500, while the global average is just over $13,000. India also lags behind countries like Sri Lanka, Vietnam, and even Bangladesh. Yes, Bangladesh. A country India once mocked is now surpassing it economically in key indicators. Damn it, don’t mention it in your speeches. God bless you.
As for inflation, well, the government claims inflation is under control, but ask the average Indian trying to buy tomatoes or cooking gas. The prices are exorbitant. Official inflation rates do not reflect the daily pressures people feel. Retail price inflation, particularly food inflation, has remained persistently high, eroding real incomes and crushing the poor and middle class. The situation will only get worse, as Modi bowed his head earlier this year and signed a trade deal requiring India to buy expensive American oil and gas rather than cheap Russian oil and gas.
They’ve turned GDP into a political tool. What’s even more twisted is how Modi presents it all as a nationalist triumph. Any critic of the economy or the government becomes anti-India. But in reality, the foundations are weak, real development isn’t happening. Infrastructure projects are riddled with corruption. Rural education is crumbling. Healthcare is a joke. Employment is a whole different horror show. Oh! And let’s not forget that India is turning into a hub of scammers. Also, the credibility of many Indian media houses has been exposed before the world community.
Meanwhile, the Modi-loyal media parrots success stories nonstop, flooding the news cycle with distractions, religion, nationalism, and enemy conspiracies. The truth becomes secondary when the headlines are about Pakistan, Bollywood, or IPL. So why does this illusion work? Because Modi is a master of emotional politics. He sells pride. He tells people they’re part of a great civilizational renewal. That’s nationalism. One needs real reforms, real investments in health, education, and jobs, not just status and slogans. It needs honest data and not censorship. It needs leadership, not demagoguery.
India can afford nuclear weapons, space rockets, and billion-dollar submarines, but it can’t seem to build clean public toilets or fix its crumbling roads. How does that make any sense? This is the country that launched a spacecraft to the moon for less money than a Hollywood film, yet 800 million Indians still rely on free food handouts to survive. A nation that parades its nuclear arsenal and aircraft carriers like trophies, but where nearly 80% of the population lives below the poverty line.
That’s all fine if you’re a country with basic universal healthcare, clean water, and decent housing, but India is not that country. Let’s look at the reality on the ground. In the heart of major Indian cities, slums stretch for miles. Open defecation remains a massive public health issue.
Hospitals are overcrowded, underfunded, and collapsing under pressure. All of India, where two-thirds of the population lives, lacks even basic road infrastructure. Forget high-speed trains. Some trains still run at an average speed of 40 kilometers per hour and are so overcrowded that passengers cling to the outside.
You’ve seen the videos of trains full of people inside and outside. Yet every time India unveils a new tank, missile, or satellite, nationalist media erupts in celebration, as if poverty and inequality can be erased with hashtags and chest-thumping speeches.
Why is Modi’s government so obsessed with prestige projects instead of actual development? It’s not like India doesn’t have the money. In 2023, it spent nearly $3 billion on a single aircraft carrier, INS Vikrant. The Tejas fighter jet program, riddled with delays and design issues, has sucked up billions more. India is building a bullet train line from Ahmedabad to Mumbai. But even that has been delayed for years and might cost up to $20 billion. And don’t even get started on the expensive fighter jets they routinely lose in accidents. Meanwhile, basic services like clean water, garbage collection, and functioning schools remain broken in most parts of the country. In rural areas, kids walk for miles to attend schools with no teachers and collapsing roofs. And in cities, middle-class families must often pay private bribes to get basic utilities and services.
So why spend billions on shiny things while the people suffer in silence? The answer lies in political image and national pride. Modi and the BJP have mastered the art of spectacle. Every space launch becomes a photo op. Every missile test turns into a viral video.
And every new tank or submarine is packaged as proof that India is a global power. But power isn’t just about military toys. Real power is when your people have food security, jobs, clean drinking water, etc, and a future. Right now, India’s human development index ranks 132 out of 191 countries, behind places like Palestine and Bangladesh.
If India wants to be viksit and a superpower, the first step is uplifting the population. Not launching rockets into space while millions of Indians don’t know where their next meal is coming from.
The irony is painful. This is not to say India should abandon all technological ambition, not at all, but ambition without empathy is meaningless, and prestige without purpose is dangerous. So instead of chasing the illusion of greatness, India should focus on the basics like health, jobs, sanitation, and infrastructure. India doesn’t need more parades or space flights. It needs working sewage systems, jobs, better wages, clean water, reliable power, all-weather roads, affordable and quality health care, efficient public transport, and actual investment in public services. The hunger for status is costing the country its soul. Because when it spends billions on vanity projects while ignoring the people’s suffering, it is not building a superpower; it is building a house of cards.
Also, the Peace and Development Party itself is yet to fulfill its election promises of 2023 in Nagaland. Our beloved students are yet to receive the promised free digital tablets, free scooters, free education for female students from kindergarten up to post-graduation, etc. Considering that these are the smallest ones among the many tall and big promises, one wonders whether there is any truth in their promises after all. Or maybe the party in Nagaland too is completely dependent, even for a few digital tablets and scooty’s only on Modi ji?. The non-biological leader of divine origin. Seriously!!!
Until both the central and state governments provide the basic needs to the citizens, like roads, power, water supply, drainage, and public toilets, kindly tone down on that Viksit Bharat and Viksit Nagaland rhetoric, respected leaders. Lastly, to be honest, the Indian arrogance and the lack of civic sense will never allow India to become truly ‘Viksit.’ Kuknalim.
R. Francis Kikon
Naharbari, Dimapur.
Wednesday, June 25, 2025