Comment | Pinarayi’s 100-day message: eat my dust

In my humble opinion, 100 days is too short a time frame to judge a government. Especially when it has taken over from a political coalition with a different political ideology and view on development, and one which had created entrenched interests in the administrative machinery.

Those factors linger on despite the old government having been discredited and thrown out by the people and act as hidden brakes for the new government's functioning.

But in today's world of fast food and tweets, 100 days -- a milestone originally invented by editors who were trying to create a buzz around nothing-to-be-excited situations -- has taken on a new aura.

Pinarayi's 100-day report card: did he meet people's expectations? I will attribute part of that excitement to the fact that today's online editors mostly come from print backgrounds and fall back to the tricks they once practiced as they grapple with the preferences of their new audiences.

Pinarayi came to power riding on the hopes of a people tired of the corruption and appeasement politics of the UDF. On the way up he had to fight an equally bruising battle within his own party -- over several years -- against the destructive politics of Achuthanandan.

He has emerged victorious but the rearguard action is still continuing, on both fronts.

But we should give credit to this man for having started on the right note. Onmanorama recently collated a few steps Pinarayi Vijayan has taken that will endear him to the masses.

6 reasons that prove Pinarayi Vijayan is a people's chief minister

Critics will always call these things gimmicks. But people, the everyman who has long been forgotten by our politicos except when it comes to looting, say things have changed on the ground.

A colleague recently mentioned that there is fear in the hearts of lower level officials in revenue offices which are known as thriving dens of corruption.

On the other hand, government staffers and Congressmen say nothing has changed after the new government came to power, that files are not moving.

But let us not forget that these are people with an ax to grind, and 100 days is too short a period to cut through the inertia created by the previous dispensation.

Onmanorama also was the first to spot a similarity in the way Pinarayi and prime minister Narendra Modi function.

Pinarayi and Modi: early days but inescapable similarities If you throw out the ideological shades that have come to define all analyses and assessments of governments in this country, that is good sign. Both the leaders mean well and both are strongmen who can get things done.

And both are fighting against similar entrenched interests -- lazy government employees, a corrupt system, high hopes from the people, to name a few.

And there is a similarity in the way the Congress at the centre and the Congress in Kerala, both now in the opposition, have reacted to the two rulers.

My encounter with the curse of God’s own country Rahul Gandhi & co went into attack mode against Modi right from day one. Some who support that campaign have even questioned the people's judgment in electing Modi, forgetting that we live in a democracy.

But all that has petered out, in the manner that anything Rahul Gandhi spearheads can be expected to end up. I see the same fate for the virulent fightback spearheaded by Ramesh Chennithala and V.M. Sudheeran post-elections in Kerala.

Modi and Vijayan have won hard-fought victories; a political opposition just thrown out of power with memories of their misdeeds still fresh in people's memory will find it an uphill task to cut any ice with the public – the real people who want things to improve.

The best the opposition can do -- at this juncture -- is to be constructive and tone down the "noise" they belt out every day.

This piece will not be complete without a discussion on the seeming double-standards of Pinarayi.

I recently made a Facebook post welcoming the chief minister's order to government staff not to celebrate Onam during office hours and was immediately panned for that.

Those who questioned me raised one important point: why is the chief minister supporting a nationwide strike Friday? Isn't it about wasting taxpayer money too?

First up, the criticism against the Onam celebration order is misplaced. Government staff don't want to work, want more pay, and some want bribes to do their job in addition to their pay.

It is coming to a point many think it is their right to be this way. That has to change.

It is not about whether Onam is a secular or a communal festival (don't ask me what those arguments mean here; I am myself searching for the answer). It is about earning your pay. Pinarayi did absolutely the right thing here.

Now, on the strike. On the face of it, one cannot forgive the chief minister for asking government staffers to support a strike. But let us not forget that Pinarayi is also the leader of a party that is supporting the strike. From that perspective, it is easier to explain this seeming contradiction.

But could the chief minister have done it differently. Yes, he could. He could have asked the government staff to work, say, with protest banners, or double their productivity on that day like the Japanese used to do. Both sound a bit out of place in Kerala, right? That is probably what the CM would have thought too :)

And then, like I mentioned earlier, the detractors from the Achuthanandan camp are still around and are waiting for such opportunities to pounce on the chief minister. Could he have made a different decision? I think, no.

Like I said at the beginning, 100 days is too short a time period but this chief minister has shot off the starting blocks. Those who lost power, those who are forced to earn their pay, and many other vested interests are snapping at him, for errors of commission and omission. But unlike some editors would have us believe, they are not snapping at his heels. Like Usain Bolt, he has left them far behind. They are eating his dust.

Someone once said that if he got right 60 percent of the things he did, he considers it a great achievement. Hasn't Pinarayi done better -- much better -- than that?