THREE N A HALF YEAR OF MODI RULE : An analysis

THREE N A HALF YEAR OF MODI RULE : An analysis

(Sunil Negi, President, Uttarakhand Journalists Forum)
It’s almost more than three years ago that our Prime Minister Narendra Modi has promised the people of India “ACCHE DIN” with regard to giving them all round economic prosperity, self reliance, development in all sectors, greater foreign investment, economic growth, improvement in health sector of the country , teaching Pakistan a befitting lesson to make it bite the dust, controlling inflation n above all giving two crore jobs every year to the unemployed youths of the country.

There is no doubt in the fact that Prime minister Narendra Modi trounced to power in 2013 because of the excessive corruption of the then Congress government led UPA at the centre n in several states n the electorates were also fed up with the incessant Congress rule of more than six decades, expecting that the new Modi phenomena may perhaps prove to be a magical wand to make them rid of all their problems, the way miracles take place sometimes. People of the country were so enthralled n mesmerized by Modi’s eloquent speeches n promises that they were not ready to give a second thought to any other political alternative, even forgetting the 2002 riots of Gujarat n politically punishing those who blamed the former, directly or indirectly on this count. The result was Narendra Modi came out triumphant historically with more than absolute majority n assuming the leadership of the largest democracy of the world to the shock n dismay of his arch political rivals. There have been several allegations of hindu polarization to playing in the hands of leading capitalists of the country like Ambani n Adani but the Modi charisma continued unabated with his party BJP wining majority of the states wresting power from the Congress n SP strongholds, particularly in the largest state of the country UP where caste n communal combination always had its say. Modi’s foreign travel spree undermining his own foreign minister Sushma Swaraj, restricting her status to mere airlifting of stranded passengers in foreign lands has also been higly published by Indian print n electronics media lauding him for branding India as a leading power, marching expeditiously towards the 21st century n making huge purchases of defense equipment n expensive hi tech fighter jets like Rafael n Israel drones worth 36000 crores or even more at the expense of the public exchequer of a country which still have more Than 50% of the people living below poverty line n billions of unemployed looking eagerly for jobs. Narendra Modi has been a greatly successful politician till date in marketing mechanism as far as the question of branding his personal image n that of his government is concerned. He is the first prime minister in free India who’ve widely n most successfully used the social networking sites like facebook n twitter to the fullest advantage of his party n for elevation of his personal image. His crores of followers on his twitter handle n posting of every bit of information of his each n every activity on his twitter account substantiates this fact. Every possible effort is also being made to use these sites for wide propagation of the prime minister Modi’s every single activity, right from the domestic front to his foreign visits in order to update the media as well as the tech n mobile savy youths, women n educated class of the country n it did worked as even today amongst the Indian n foreign poltical leaders he is the only PM to elicit maximum likes and positive political comments by his millions of followers n hindu chauvinists n bigots from all around the world. Modi’s singular performance as an outstanding leader with the assistance of his political crony n BJP chief Amit Shah has till date proved to be entirely successful whether it was demonetisation that allegedly led to about 300 or more people dying (due to note bandi’s one reason or the other) or wresting 5 states including the largest Uttar Pradesh from the traditional clutches of Samajwadi Party or Mayavati’s BSP though according to his political rivals it was not the development plank but the Hindu polarization that actually worked as Narendra Modi n his party had not given a single ticket out of total 400 to a Muslim candidate, sending across a message of majority community polarization, which actually worked and the BJP secured an absolute majority showing the castist n pro minority parties the exit door to the shock n surprise of one and all. The surgical strike across the border destroying Pak sponsored terror camps n killing several terrorists manning them also played a major pivotal role in BJP’s victory in these elections. Promise to wave off the farm loans also played a significant role to entice the votes from the rural belts in UP who were earlier the SP, Lok Dal n Congress Party’s vote bank. But despite all these achievements people of the country have now started questioning Prime minister Narendra Modi n his histrionics n the unfulfilled promises given to the country’ s electorates 3 n a half year ago. The foreign tours of our prime minister did help in elevating India’s image on the international political scenerio (that really put a lot of burden on the country’s exchequer) but the China India imbroglion still continues n the Pakistan abetted terrorism continues unabatedly killing hundreds of our civilians, paratroopers n Army jawans. The Naxal problem has deteriorated to the fullest with lynchings of the para military troopers still continuing with no sight of ending of this long standing vexed issue. The jobs in the IT sector of the country are diminishing and IT professionals like Durga Prasad of Pune are still committing suicides feeling job insecurity. Jobs in government sectors have completely vanished. Manufacturing growth has sharply slipped from 2.6% on April to 1.2 in May ; while exports drastically came down from 246 billion dollars in April to 240 billiond dollars in May n 235 billion dollars in June while the demonetisation induced deflation in food prices threatens to undermine rural demand and a speedier economic recovery. Add to it the supply chain disruptions following the implementation of the Goods n Services Tax which has yet to come good n its claim of being independent India’s biggest tax reform says Sr Journalist Rajesh Mahapatra in one of his article in HT. In addition to this the prestigious Tata Consultancy services opened the calendar, reporting a ten percent year on year drop in net profit n a net decline in its work force for the first time since 2010. Henceforth, TCS India’s biggest employer of soft ware engineers, recently announced shutting down of its Lucknow centre n relocate the 2000 staff working there. This is just one sign- more will follow – of how the job market n the economy on the whole might begin from bad to worse adds Mahapatra in his article THE POLITICS-ECONOMICS DISCONNECT IN INDIA. The communal colour oriented cow vigilantism phenomena has also vitiated the communal fabric of the country with lynchings by goons wearing saffron robes under the guise of cow protection incessantly going on though of late but finally the prime minister Narendra Modi has appreciably taken a serious note of it issuing a stern warning of severely punishing the perpetrators of such communal lynchings. The issue of bringing back vast amount of black money stashed in foreign banks still remains unresolved n a distant dream. Though Modiji deserves to be applauded for cracking on the black money hoarders n compelling the common people of the country to deposit their stashed money in banks n thus helped collecting over 12 lac crores in governments exchequer but unfortunately this highly revolutionary move has also in no way contributed in either bringing down inflation nor has it resulted in the financial welfare n well being of the common masses particularly in the context of generating employment to crores of youths of the country as promised in 2013 when he became the prime minister of the country. The health sector of the country too is still in doldrums with the poor, hapless, down trodden n lower middle classes still finding it difficult to seek treatment for critical illnesses as treatment has now become the privilege of the rich, affluent n the uper middle classes of the country. The recent launch of the GST has benefited the rich businessmen n the small n marginal entrepreneurs have been left in lurch. Similarly enhancement in duty n other taxes up to 28% in majority of the items n commodities have further overburdened the already burdened middle class n the lower middle class. Conclusively, it can be said that the results of the good works or achievements of the part
y in power relating to employment, health, price, education, housing n farm sector etc are not being felt or visualized though we have of course been hearing a lot about the development in infrastructural sector n higly expensive bullet trains while farmers suicides are still on despite waiving of farm loans in various BJP n non BJP ruled states. However, Narendra Modiji deserved to be complimented for not allowing a single case of political corruption during his tenure of the last three n a half year. There is lot to say still but I think if we analyse the functioning of the BJP ruled states such as UP n Uttarakhand things are more horrifying as not only the crime graph has taken an upward leap in Yogi Adiyanath’s state despite so much of claims of self praise in UTTARAKHAND too, the land of abode of GODS delivery of liquor to the doorsteps of the people through mobile vans has become a priority subject than issues of peoples’ significance.What do you say friends?