It's been a year, I repeat, only one year, since the Modi government was voted in. But the gloomy clouds of despondency, spreading across the length and breadth of India, have rapidly over-shadowed the bright sun of optimism, that accompanied the mandate Narendra Modi and the BJP won in May 2014. For the lack of a better analogy, in a matter of just one year, the mood of this nation has perhaps done a faster U-turn than Modi's government on many of its poll promises!
Here are 15 such issues on which Modi government has failed to live up to its expectations.
1) Prices sky-rocket
Food Prices have shown an upward trend. Onion prices up by 29%, Tomato by 10.5%, Brinjal by 15%, Lentils by Rs 30-50 per kilogram! Remember Narendra Modi's campaign against price rise and inflation? Ever since Modi has assumed office international oil prices fell over 38% but commensurate benefit has not passed on to the consumer to the same extent. Ideally, petrol prices should be no more than Rs 45-46/litre but we pay Rs 67 per litre. Just yesterday, as a rude "1st anniversary gift" petrol and diesel prices were hiked yet again! By Rs 3.13 and Rs 2.71 again!
2) Agriculture crisis
The rising food prices have benefited neither the consumer nor the farmer!
600 farmers have committed suicide in BJP run Maharashtra - 300 suicides since January 2015 in the Marathwada region! Falling prices and unseasonal rain and hailstorm has destroyed thousands of acres of standing crops but so far there hasn't even been a proper assessment of the damage done, leave alone payment of compensation to farmers! Shrinking agricultural credit, no increase in MSP, reduction in agricultural spending has all led to a slowdown in the growth in agriculture to a mere 1.1% in 2014-15 from an average 4% growth rate during the Manmohan Singh led government. No wonder then, Nitin Gadkari has quite honestly told Indian farmers that they should neither rely on God nor the Government!
3) Land acquisition
The 2013 Land Acquisition law, passed by unanimous consensus, after accepting recommendations from the opposition BJP and other stake holders, was attempted to be diluted through the ordinance route, in order to benefit a few handful of interests. Amongst other things it took away the consent clause from farmers, removed the provision for Social Impact Assessment and denied farmers the right to move court against any injustices in its implementation. Doesn't take rocket science to figure why the Modi government seems inclined to rid farmers of their lands in a country where real estate is showing an upward trend!
4) Anti-Corruption and Transparency systems being weakened
More than 39000 RTI applications pending at Information Commissions. It has been a year and no CIC has been appointed. Turns out the PMO was also one of the top 'rejectors' of RTI applications. Even the Ex-CIC Shailesh Gandhi claims that Modi Sarkar is rendering RTI dysfunctional! Posts of CVC and Lokpal continue to be vacant as well. Ministers like Nitin Gadkari, whose group Purti has been indicted by the CAG continues to be a minister!
5) Defence spending cut
Despite the Army ruing the lack of funds for critical weaponry, the Modi government went ahead and slashed the defence budget to just 1.7% of the GDP which is the lowest since 1960s. On the other hand China, has increased its spending and has a defence budget that is three times ours!
6) Negative Job growth
During rallies Modi promised 10 crore jobs in 5 years. At the end of his first year has he created 2 crore jobs? Not quite. In fact he has lost jobs! The quarter between October and December 2014 registered a slow down in job growth from 1.82lakhs in April-June 2014 to 1.17lakhs! Over 40,000 jobs were lost in auto and other sectors.
7) 56inch nationalism?
The BJP always prided itself on being a nationalist party! Its biggest leader Shyama Prasad Mookherjee died for the cause of scrapping Article 370 granting special status to Jammu and Kashmir and establishing 'Ek Vidhan, Ek Nishan'. To ally with the PDP, whose chief minister thanked Pakistan and militants for conduct of elections in J&K on his first day,the BJP compromised on its core principles like abolition of Article 370. If that wasn't enough the PDP-BJP government released anti-India venom spewer Masarat Alam and allowed him to hold anti-India rallies with Pakistani flags! Those separatists, whom the BJP until 3 years ago was labeling as anti-national elements, today hold ministerial positions in the BJP-PDP government!
8) Weak and confused policy on Pakistan!
Modi government was quick to lay out a red carpet for Pakistan and even resumed the dialogue process even though Pakistan had made no new commitments to tackle terror against India emanating from its soil or to bring the perpetrators of 26/11 to justice, who now roam in Pakistan as free men! In return Modi government got 685 violations of ceasefire from Pakistan that cost us many lives- civilian and jawans. Forget bringing ten heads for one, India sent its minister to celebrate Pakistan Day in the presence of separatist leaders who continue to propagate anti-India venom. Even though there has been no progress in the 26/11 trial the Modi government has also allowed the resumption of bilateral cricketing ties recently.
9) Dismantling Net Neutrality
Having received over-whelming support from netizens, it was expected that the Modi government would not allow net neutrality to be under threat! But it did nothing to cancel the TRAI consultation paper, that advocates policy positions that are anti-thetical to net neutrality!
10) Short-changing the middle class house buyer
20 odd changes, out of the 117 proposed by the Modi government to the Real Estate Regulator Bill are such that they benefit the builder at the expense of the consumer or home buyer! For example the Modi government has changed the meaning of 'net usable area' from a well-defined carpet area to 'rentable area' as defined in the National Building Code, which can be changed later on by mere executive order too! This would hurt transparency. The government has also proposed allowing 'minor changes' to be made in sanctioned plans and has not defined the term at all. This could be grossly misused to the detriment of the home buyer too.
11) Key Social sector spending cut
Modi government has furthered its image of being a 'suit boot ki sarkar' by cutting down spending on key social sectors. For example Women and child development has got Rs 8205 crores less this year and the Scheduled caste development plan has got a whopping Rs 13208 crores less. Tribals have been short changed of Rs 7714 crore. Health and Education spending has come down by a total of Rs 28000 crores! While the UPA increased Plan allocation by 18% and 8% in 2012-13 and 13-14, BJP government reduced it by 24.6%. NACO's budget was cut by 22% weakening our fight against AIDS.
12) Education in dire straits
Even if you ignore the unsavoury. controversy surrounding the HRD Minister Smriti Irani's education qualifications, what you cannot ignore is the fact that 1 out of 4 central universities has no full time head as of now. Savage cuts of 22 % in Sarv Shiksha Abhiyan, 16.4% in Mid Day meal scheme, 28.7% in secondary education and 48% in Rashtriya Ucchatar Shiksha Abhiyan show that primary, secondary and higher education have been equally neglected under the current government. Modi during his election campaign had promised to increase spending on education and instead of following the recommendations of the Standing Committee on HRD , the government is cutting education spending! Attempts are being made to denude the UGC and other premier institutions like IIT of their autonomy. The one thing Smriti Irani has managed to do is keep the bosses at RSS very happy. Whether it was Mr Y Sudershan Rao who was appointed as Chairman of the Indian Council of Historical Research or the VC of Benares Hindu University to the head of Book Trust- people with a particular ideology and affinity were rewarded. 25th December or Christmas Day was directed to be observed as 'Good Governance Day'! No wonder then, several key academicians have also raised their voice on the goings-on in the ministry.
13) Crimes against Women on the rise
When the Nirbhaya rape took place in Delhi in 2012, the BJP had taken to the streets and protested against Delhi turning into the rape capital of India! With 11 rapes a day taking place in Madhya Pradesh, a state ruled by them for over a decade, the BJP and its leadership should have taken out a protest on the streets of Bhopal too. Nonetheless, the issue was a major campaigning plank for Narendra Modi but after assuming office, there has been a 31% rise in crimes against women including rapes in the national capital. Now, many questions could be asked of his commitment on this issue concerning 50% of our population when he continues to retain a minister like Nihalchand who is being hunted by Rajasthan Police in a sexual assault case! Perhaps, one could also extend that argument to the patriarchal and sexist remarks by several BJP and Sangh Parivar leaders like Kailash Vijayvargiya, Mohan Bhagwat,Manohar Khattar, Sakshi Maharaj to Giriraj Singh. Just to make sure that we live in no illusions about how seriously the government takes women's issues of safety and decurity, the PM also cut the budget of WCD ministry by a whopping 50%. After all as the finance minister Arun Jaitley once said- the Nirbhaya issue is a 'small rape incident'. Need we say anymore?
14) Economy in doldrums
Mod had, during the campaign, portrayed himself as the 'savour' of the Indian economy. But indicators suggest that under his tenure the economy has tanked even further. Eight core industries registered a negative growth of 0.1% in March, the lowest performance in 17 months. The rupee has seen a downward slide too crossing the age of the finance minister in December 2014 and touching the PM's age in May 2015. Exports fell by 15%. Big bang reforms promised by Modi are still awaited. Key infrastructure projects are moving slowly.
15) 'Sabka Saath, Sabka Vikas' promise belied
The most important slogan by Modi during the campaign was 'Sabka Saath, Sabka Vikas'- that his model of development and governance would be inclusive. It gave hope to many skeptics that this was Modi 2.0 - who had transformed from his 2002 avataar. But that mask is slipping off quickly too. In the past few months- Delhi witness a series of church attacks. Large number of communal statements were made by leaders of the BJP and Sangh Parivar- Yogi Adityanath to Sakshi Maharaj, from Sadhvi Jyoti to Subramanian Swamy- but no action was taken against any of them. An ally- Sanjay Raut of the Shiv Sena went to the extent of demanding the disenfrachisement of Muslims in India and even that did not prompt the twitter-happy PM to break his silence. In fact, his government went ahead and appointed Tatagatha Roy as the Governor of Tripura despite his deeply communal and Islamophobic tweets.
Nobody disputes that the Modi government has a mandate for five years and would have to be made accountable to the people in 2019. But as far as "Acche Din" are concerned, the wait continues. This has been re-iterated by the BJP MP Mr. Singh from Balia in UP , who says he is yet to see development on the ground under Modi's regime. But nobody sums it up better than a former minister and strong supporter of BJP Arun Shourie, when he quotes Akbar Allahabadi and says that so far, we "only hear the sound of plates but the food has still not been served." We hope that by this time next year, we would get a little more than empty promises and mere headline hunting.
Disclaimer: The views expressed here are solely those of the author in his private capacity and do not reflect the stand of CNN-IBN/ IBNLive.
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