When Bihar voted NDA, reversing all exit poll predictions, many people were wondering how did it happen? Is it Modi’s magic or his performance? Narendra Modi emerged as the biggest game changer in Bihar elections. He has the art of moving people in the direction of his performance when all media houses are echoing change of the government. To him, it is performance and performance alone speaks. He showed that Gujarat Model is working in the whole country. Let’s examine how it happened by detailing into Swachh Bharat Mission

“Build toilets first and temples later”, said Hindutva icon and BJP’s prime ministerial candidate. ~~Narendra Modi said in October 2013.

Speaking at a function organized for the youth, Modi said he dared to say so even though his image as a Hindutva leader did not allow him. I am known to be a Hindutva leader. My image does not permit to say so, but I dare to say. My real thought is — Pehle shauchalaya, phir devalaya’ (toilet first, temple later),” he said

Narendra Modi kept his promise once he became Prime Minister of India. He lead the Swachh Bharat Mission of constructing Shauchalayas first before laying the foundation stone of Ram Mandir.

Ranga, 45-year-old women, a mother of three patiently waited half of her life to fulfil her wish of having a toilet room in her home. Ranga and her four daughters have to walk a long distance to a field to answer nature’s calls till few years ago. Pre sunrise and post sunset are preferred mode of timings to have the luxury of privacy. Laxmi, 17-year-old daughter of Ranga says, “it was a real hard time” and only people who have the first-hand experience of it can relate to these difficulties of day to day life. In her words, “going to the field in the dark, looking for a secluded place where we were not seen by none was the toughest challenge”. These troubles are no more now. Padma, 19, Ranga’s elder daughter echoed “it was really very tiring for women to come out during odd hours in the dark as there was unwanted male attention always on the streets and there is a fear of eve teasing, physical assault in addition to danger of snake and insect bites”.

Asia’s 3^rd largest economy under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Swachh Bharat or Clean India, mission launched the campaign in October 2014, to make the country open defecation free to promote cleanliness, hygiene and sanitation of the surrounding environment. Ranga and her daughters are one among the millions of people who got benefitted from this program. 110 million toilets are built across the country under this program focusing rural India. Govt spent nearly 1.34 lakh crore to build these toilets, the largest toilet building projects in India leading to improvement of health of the people contributing to the growth of the economy of the nation. Both central and state governments split the funding in the ratio of 60:40. World bank sanctioned $1.5 billion loan for the gigantic ambitious cleanliness drive

An official statement was issued in early October 2020, by the PM Modi at Ahmedabad rally that India is now free of open defecation with 110 million toilets built in five years and 600 million people have access to them. When the mission was started, the national rural sanitation coverage was 39% increased to 100% now.

In the words of Parameswaran Iyer, heading Swachh Bharat Mission, “We have been very fortunate that we have had the prime minister lending his weight to this program — he announced [the scheme and] in many ways he’s our communicator-in-chief, and that has made a big difference in the momentum of the program.”

World Health Organization’s study says that the Swachh Bharat Mission in rural India is expected to prevent 3,00,000 deaths from diarrhoea and malnutrition between 2014 to 2019. Unhygienic conditions lead to estimated cases of 199 million people suffering with diarrhoea before the launch of Swachh Bharat Mission leading to construction of toilets.

Nobody expected BJP to win in Bihar and Modi JI addressed back to back rallies. He spoke about his performance in presenting all basic needs like providing water, gas and toilets. These are tables Modi turned against the opposition and Modi reminded people saying that how his govt provided food grains to the people during lock down. People have transcended to think about development in real terms and they are seeing with their naked eyes. Women voters voted as whole for toilets, gas, ration and water.

Let’s hope that Indian democracy will have a strong constructive opposition by realizing the fact of continuous performance leading to sustaining success. High time for the opposition parties to understand the undercurrent of development factor in winning elections. Bihar elections a strong indicating lesson to all political parties “perform or perish