Events & Issues
New Delhi, 29 May 2019
Harmony &
Poverty
WILL MODI & NDA
DELIVER?
By Dhurjati
Mukherjee
It is indeed very difficult the understand election dynamics and
what impact the issues would have on the end results. Even doing away with the
claims of political leaders, the whole dynamics is indeed complicated, keeping
in view concerns of the middle class, the problems of the poorer sections and
the caste-class combine. The resounding victory of the BJP bears testimony to
the spate of welfare measures, specially those announced in the past one year,
the so-called for national security concern and the incapability of the
Congress to finalise alliances in some states and emerge as a credible
alternative to the saffron party.
The less said about the regional parties the better as these have
no clear strategy, except securing power and this has been aired by the Prime
Minister again and again. For example, the wanton violence in Bengal during and
after the elections has been a distressing factor and speaks very poorly about
the state of governance in the TMC-ruled State. Being ruled by a woman who
professes to have a simple lifestyle, it was indeed quite surprising she used
abusive language during her virtually solo campaign, not just towards any party
but individual attacks on the Prime Minister.
It is a fact that other political leaders have mostly criticised
the policies of the BJP and rarely attacked the Prime Minister. In this
connection, Rahul Gandhi’s slogan chowkidar chor haya also appears not to be made in
good spirit though the Rafale scam appears to prove his involvement in this
unethical deal with Anil Ambani. But the poor performance of the Congress
proved that people thought that since the UPA could not reach the necessary
figures and would have to depend on regional parties – power hungry and
extremely corrupt – they voted for the BJP.
Another significant development has been that issues like farm
crisis, massive unemployment etc. did not cut much ice as in both these areas,
respective State governments were equally responsible. Obviously, the results
do not reflect the emerging economic crisis or also to the fact that the
pro-rich policies of the NDA government have not been favourable to the country
and to the impoverished masses.
In analysing the election results, it is indeed difficult to
understand why the Congress has been wiped out in Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan
and performed miserably in Chhattisgarh, though in recent Assembly elections it
grabbed power. While one group of commentators feel that they want better
governance at the Centre, which only Modi can ensure, others attribute it to
religious issues as people in these States are not well educated and feel that
the NDA government would give a proper status to Hinduism.
The Hindi heartland has possibly rejected allegations of
divisive politics of the ruling party. Perhaps people felt that the BJP tried
to give Hindus an identity as years of Congress rule pampered Muslims without
actually looking into their educational needs.
The results point to the fact that wining elections has a
different calculation. While in some very few cases the stature of the
candidate has been the criterion for wining, in most cases, however, the party
under which he or she stands has been the motivating factor. Moreover, a large
number of candidates who have won are involved in criminal cases and are very
rich by Indian standards. Also among those who have been re-elected have
increased their wealth significantly which, if analysed in depth, would clearly
reveal that it is much higher than their known sources of income.
This may not paint a very satisfying picture about the future
state of governance. The two factors that stand out to be distressing are one of
the rampant violence and hatred witnessed during the run-up to the polls; and
two whether candidates with criminal records and/or very rich by Indian
standards would be effective in solving problems of the masses. This is
reinforced by the fact that the NDA re-emergence boosted up the stock market,
which obviously points to the fact that business houses are happy about this.
Does this signal to the poor and the impoverished being sidelined?
Mahatma Gandhi had stated that accumulation of wealth by the
rich was intrinsically connected with violence. And this has become a reality
in modern day society. If this is to be believed, how will people trust that
the new government which claims to go for inclusive development – one that will
cater to the needs of the common man residing in rural and backward areas of
the country? However, it is heartening to hear that Modi, just
after his party’s remarkable victory, assured that the next five years will be
dedicated to eradicate poverty from the country, which, according to him, as he
rightly stated would be the best return gift on the 150th birth
anniversary of Gandhi.
A word of caution is that resources are under strain as the
government has been borrowing more and more and seeking to extract additional
capital from the central bank. Any further widening in the fiscal deficit,
which has reached 3.4 per cent of GDP, may jeopardise the nation’s credit
rating.
Pessimism at this point of time may not solve current problems
as also emerging ones but one has to hope that the new NDA government would try
to put a better governance system and raise hopes through a transformed
developmental approach. This would include better opportunities for
people belonging to SC/ST and dalit groups, genuine approach in tackling the
farm crisis, boosting up employment potential by giving a thrust to
labour-intensive sectors through promotion of cottage and agro-based
industries, tacking water crisis etc.
But more than all this, decentralisation has to become effective
in practice with more power being transferred to the panchayats. Moreover, the
personality cult of Modi, which was blatantly manifest during the poll campaigns,
does not augur well for a cadre-based party like BJP. Hero worship obviously is
not desirable as analysts have been harping for a long time that this may lead
to eventual dictatorship.
Though the last 4-5 years saw some big ticket reforms, its
benefits did not reach the common man for whom virtually nothing changed on the
ground. Also the economic aspect of decentralisation has to be given a special
thrust so that people’s power, as envisaged by Gandhi, becomes a reality. But
though we talk about this, will power hungry politicians make this a reality?
One must not forget that the inherent trend of political leaders to show that
they are supreme needs to change and a lot more humility and compassion is
needed for bringing about the much desired societal change in the country.
On the social front, harmony has to be prevail in society and
religious animosity has to be discarded. Religion should not be used to play
with people’s sentiments as Indian religious leaders like Swami Vivekananda and
even Gandhi had called for unity of all religions. It is expected that the NDA
government would shred its earlier posture and follow a path of harmonious
living.---INFA
(Copyright, India News & Feature Alliance)
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