Today’s Hindu newspaper
carries a number of articles on the one year of Mr Modi as Prime Minister.
Except the one BJP supporter, none of the other writers has anything good to
say about the year that India passed through. I found it an interesting exercise to take the
major arguments of the BJP spokesman, Ravi Shankar Prasad, and rebut them with
the arguments given by the other writers.
Here’s a discussion I fabricated out of the views expressed by the four
writers.
R S Prasad: In just a span of 12 months, the NDA government has
succeeded in restoring India’s image as a fast-growing economy.
Sitaram Yechuri: The statistical base year for national income
accounts has been changed in order to project the GDP growth rate in better
light. Despite this, it is clear that
the manufacturing and industrial growth are just not taking off.
Yechuri: The share of wages as a proportion of GDP now stands a
little over 10 percent compared to over 25 percent in 1990-91.... The rich have
become richer. As per the Forbes list
2014, the 100 richest people in India are all U.S.$billionaires, i.e., 45 more
than the figure of 55 in 2011. The
combined worth of these 100 billionaires comes to $346 billion.
Prasad: The NDA government has restored governance and transparency in decision-making.
Pankaj Mishra |
Pankaj Mishra: I think one has to think of Mr Modi along with
Suharto, Lee Kwan Yew, and the CCP provincial bosses... These are all control
freaks supported by the corporate and technocratic classes who prefer top-down
solutions and rapid decision-making, and have contempt for anything that doesn’t
directly advance their interests. So the
rise of the middle class in Asia has assisted the growth of authoritarian
populism rather than democracy.
Prasad: Under the leadership of Prime Minister Modi, India has
become a country of hope. There is no gloom and despair, no
apprehension...
Kapil Sibal |
Kapil Sibal: Agriculture is in distress.
The growth rate in agriculture has come down to 1.1 percent from 3.7
percent in 2014. More farmers are
committing suicide than ever before. The average debt of 52 percent of all
agricultural households is Rs 47,000 of which 26 percent is owed to private
moneylenders – the root cause of farmer suicides.... The average price of
select items consumed daily by people is higher than today than a year ago....
The promise to put Rs15 lakh in every citizen’s bank account from the recovered
black money was an unethical and dishonest attempt to garner votes.... The
Prime Minister appears to have forgotten about the issue of corruption and the
Lokpal...
I would like to give the final words to:
Pankaj Mishra: Modi should learn from the Chinese their deliberate rejection of self-promotion.
It is interesting to see the varied reactions to the completion of 1 year. I subscribe to the thought that results in the government sector take time and I am kinda happy with the way the country is shaping itself. Yday it was all over the news that AAP was protesting 1 year completion of Modi govt and wondered where are we headed to? A place where we keep blaming each other and finally no work is done at all? Or should it make sense to focus on what is more important than just fighting over the details?! Politics sure is a messy field!
ReplyDeleteToday politics is all about power and nothing to do with service. For every party. That's why we are left with claims and counter-claims.
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