From ‘chalta hai’ to ‘badal sakta hai’, changing the way India thinks

The BJP was once branded as a party restricted to certain areas and social constituencies. PM Modi worked assiduously to change this perception.

5 min readOct 7, 2026 06:21 AM IST First published on: Oct 7, 2026 at 06:21 AM IST

Prime Minister Narendra Modi belongs to a rare breed of people who refuse to accept inherited challenges. He believes, and his actions show, that no problem in public life is too difficult to solve. I distinctly remember an Independence Day address in which he said that India must move away from the “chalta hai” attitude towards a “badal sakta hai” attitude.

I have known him first as a colleague in the party and later in the government. For those of us who worked in the BJP for decades, Article 370 and Ram Janmabhoomi were matters of profound conviction, for which we made sacrifices. But I would be honest to admit that there were moments when even some of our own karyakartas doubted whether they would see these issues resolved in their lifetime. Article 370, described in the Constitution as a temporary provision, had come to be seen as virtually impossible to abrogate. I had the privilege of presiding over the Rajya Sabha when the historic legislation relating to its abrogation was passed. The Ram Janmabhoomi journey was much longer. Generations had lived with the hope that one day a grand temple would stand at the birthplace of Prabhu Shri Ram. On January 22, 2024, that hope became a reality.

Modi became Gujarat Chief Minister a few months after the state had been hit by a terrible earthquake. Kutch, already a region beset by great difficulties, had suffered severe losses. Modi understood that the first task was to restore confidence. He spent his first Diwali as CM with the area’s earthquake-affected families. Over the years, his policies helped Kutch reinvent itself, and it came to be known for its tourism potential, industrial growth and agricultural achievements.

Water presented another seemingly permanent challenge to Gujarat. The Sardar Sarovar Project, conceived decades earlier, was mired in complications. Modi pursued it and saw to it that the dam reached completion and Narmada water travelled to water-scarce parts of Gujarat. Other, smaller structures, including check dams, made water conservation a mass movement and helped Gujarat’s farmers achieve remarkable results.

Modi became PM at a time when India had been labelled one of the “Fragile Five” economies and its banking system was burdened with serious problems. He initiated a process of resolving these challenges through measures including the Asset Quality Review, banking reforms and the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code. India went on to become the fastest-growing major economy in the world. Many believed that the political consensus required for the GST would prove elusive. Yet it became possible because Modi was willing to invest political capital and see the reform through.

Today, India is a leader in digital payments. Technology was not a challenge. The seemingly impossible task was to persuade crores across cities, villages, generations and income groups to change a deeply ingrained habit. Experienced political leaders asked how a street vendor could be brought into a digital payments ecosystem. PM Modi made that transformation possible.

Poverty was another problem India had come to accept as permanent. Today, 25 crore Indians have moved out of multidimensional poverty. This happened through the painstaking work of creating a broad safety net and then giving the poor the means — bank accounts, direct benefit transfers, housing, sanitation, electricity, cooking gas, food security, health insurance and economic opportunities — to move out of poverty.

For decades, Naxalism cost our nation thousands of lives. Through a twin approach of security and development, it has now been brought to an end. It is not that every problem has disappeared. But Modi has ensured that the assumption of helplessness in the face of problems has disappeared. During the pandemic, he brought the nation together. The Indian economy bounced back faster than many other major nations.

The West Asia crisis brought another set of challenges involving energy security, shipping and trade. India’s approach, involving government and society, has been mature and responsible.

The BJP was once branded as a party restricted to certain areas and social constituencies. PM Modi worked assiduously to change this perception. The BJP’s growth in the Northeast and East India, and its deepening support among poor, rural and marginalised sections, have changed the country’s political map. For those who have watched his journey closely, it is clear that Narendra Modi begins by asking what the nation needs, and then works to create the circumstances to deliver it. This mindset is extremely important for a country that wants to become Viksit Bharat by 2047.