2 years of Modi Govt: drought of ideas, drain of credibility
‘Achhe Din’ were supposed to have arrived in 2014, but didn’t. Even 2-years later, there is no trace of its much hyped arrival. In fact, the past 2-year period has been an exercise in creating circumstances that are antithetical to the sustenance of ‘Achhe Din’. But can a Government stoop to such lows that they start working against the interests of its own people?
Shri Narendra Modi’s crony capitalist friends invested heavily in his 2014 election campaign. They were instrumental in designing, funding & executing his surreal campaign and creating a demigod like aura around his person.
So when the time came, it was obvious they would ask for returns. On 26 May 2014, Shri Modi became the Prime Minister of India, but the backrooms of his new Government had already been taken up by his corporate friends.
Their first targets were India’s farmers. Within the first 6 months itself, Modi Government initiated one of the most brazen attempts to capture the land of farmers – first through Amendments to UPA’s pro-farmer Land Acquisition Law and then through a series of Ordinances. They failed, and had to retreat in face of spirited opposition put up by the Congress party.
Modi Government’s policy decisions & priorities are heavily skewed against the interests of India’s poor, farmers, labourers & unusually inclined towards the interests of few big business houses.
The attitude of the Modi Government can be been summed up by their inaction & indifference in handling 2 years of drought. Cabinet Minister Ms. Uma Bharti even went on record saying “no one can prepare for a drought,” and when the Indian Railways sent a ‘water train’ to Maharashtra it sent a ‘bill’ for Rs 2 crore to the State Government. These two incidents are clear indicators that to the Modi administration farmers don’t matter.
Shri Modi came to power comparing his performance with that of the UPA. Yet even a cursory glance at the data will show that the growth in Rural Income under UPA was 30%, while under the NDA it has only been 6%. Under the BJP, the average MSP increase has been a paltry 3% per annum, while under the Congress led UPA it averaged 14.87% per annum.
Under the Modi Government, production of pulses and food grains have fallen from 5.99 million tonnes to 5.36 million tonnes for pulses, and 128.7 million tonnes to 124.2 million tonnes, respectively, between 2013 and 2015. For the farmer, the simple of act of farming has ceased to be profitable.
An RTI application reveals that the profit margin to grow Urad Dal in 2014-15 stood at a paltry 33 paise/kg. Why would a farmer grow pulses for this rate of return? As the population grows, so does the demand for food. But the Modi administration doesn’t understand this, or rather, does not want to understand it.
In times of drought, the BJP in its hubris has chosen to either ignore or look the other way when landmark legislations of the UPA, which could have been used to help the rural population, were being poorly implemented. MGNREGA has seen only 1.8% of the eligible people get 150 days of work in drought-hit states. Food Security Act has been implemented in only fits and starts. Caught in the middle of BJPs vendetta politics, the Indian farmers is starving, jobless & dying of thirst.
The BJP likes to tout the difference between India and Bharat, the urban and the rural, and how they are the defenders of rural India. Yet under the watchful gaze of the Prime Minister, farmer suicides have grown by 209%! From 969 farmer suicides in 2014, this number has increased to 2993 in 2015. And this number is merely farmers who were forced to commit suicide because of crop related reasons, ignoring all systemic pressures which are placed on the farmer by a heartless Government.
When the Government releases latest data in July, the number of farmers who have committed suicide will be significantly higher. To put it in perspective, in Maharashtra alone, as per a reply in the State Assembly, 3228 farmers have committed suicide, significantly higher than the official All-India number.
This Government has convinced itself that rhetoric equals sound policy and effective action. But, Shri Narendra Modi should remember good rhetoric, devoid of substance, will not feed the farmer, nor improve the agriculture economy, which grew at 1% in 2015, after falling by 0.2% in 2014.
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