Methodology
The devil is in details, they say. The approach we employed in preparing the meter is as follows. Readers are encouraged to point out inaccuracies and help us improve this accountability exercise.
- The BJP Manifesto is drafted in bullet points. However, multiple promises can often be found in a single bullet point. To avoid bias from our end, each bullet point in the manifesto is considered as a one promise in the meter. So unless all promises are fulfilled, the entire point would continue to be labelled as “Partially fulfilled” even if one of the promises is fulfilled. For example, in promise no. 15, the government promises to annul Article 35A, the safe return of Kashmiri Pandits and other things in a single bullet point. Now while the government has scrapped Article 35A, it has failed to deliver on the safe return of Kashmir Pandits.
- A mere official announcement or setting up a committee with no further action on it is not ‘substantial progress’ (check ‘About Us’ page). For example, while the Ram Nath Kovind panel has submitted its report favouring the simultaneous polls, the government is still to act on the recommendation.
- Modimeter is a tracker. It merely provides the status of promises made in the BJP manifesto and does not comment on whether these promises are needed or not in the first place.
- The promises in the Modimeter are categorized just as they are in the BJP manifesto.
- Most promises include specifics such as launching a new scheme, achieving a target or finishing a work by a specific deadline. However, few promises (5-10%) simply lack these traits. For example, the promise to ‘continue to implement’ Rashtriya Gram Swaraj Abhiyan. Such promises are anyway fulfilled from Day one. Hence, we have labelled such promises as ‘fulfilled’ only where the government’s performance in the current tenure (2019-24) surpasses the performance made in the previous tenure (2014-19). Appropriate outcome indicators have been used in such cases for comparison. Please let us know if you have a better suggestion to assess such promises.
- Since the Modimeter tracks the 2019 manifesto, only those steps taken by the central government after May 29, 2019, have been considered in preparing the meter.
- For readers’ convenience, the text of bullet points in the manifesto document has been shortened while ensuring the key parts (promises) remain intact. Here’s the BJP manifesto: https://shorturl.at/cemB6 and here is the final draft of the Modimeter: https://shorturl.at/jGNS0 Check the documents to find if we have erred anywhere.