How Modi has let us down
Many argue that it is too early to judge the Narendra Modi government as it has been in office for only seven months. But there's a saying in Hindi, "Poot ke paon paalne mein hi nazar aa jaate hain" (you can figure out how your child is going to grow up to be when he is only an infant), and going by what we have seen so far, the signs aren't very encouraging.
Why do I say that? The most obvious broken promise is the return of black money from abroad within 100 days. Yes, there is a SIT but that was formed due to directions of the Supreme Court. And then there are statements from the finance minister which shows either his ignorance about the issue or his deflection of the real issue. While people were looking for dhan wapsi from Modi, what they have got instead is ghar wapsi from his friends in the RSS and VHP.
An increase in the minimum support price, the farmers have been demanding this but to no avail, has led to farmers committing suicide across states and has also led to massive unrest amongst them. Wage data shows that this has been a bad year for farmers and rural India. What is equally unfortunate, despite high prices and inflation the unemployed have only promises of job creation. While the PM promises jobs through make in India there has hardly been any step towards creating the atmosphere for it. On the other hand we have our rural development minister Nitin Gadkari cutting MNREGA (Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme) budgets which is impacting people living in rural areas. But then how do the poor matter to this government?
Recently to show the government means business they chose the ordinance route to dilute the land acquisition act. The dilution of the act majorly impacts our farmers and their land. This Act was diluted despite the UPA getting broad consensus and agreement before the bill was cleared in the Parliament. The government has done away with holding officials accountable for dereliction of duty. Also done away with farmers right to ask back for their land if they haven't received the amount due for five years. In the guise of infrastructure and social development, every conceivable project has been kept out of the social impact assessment.
The prime minister's "sar nahin jhukne denge" model was exposed when he shaved off the defence budget by Rs 13,000 crores across the three armed forces. These were meant for buying major weapons and systems as part of military modernisation. Of course they justify it as "reappropriation of capital outlay" to "revenue expenditure" but the message is clear. The one rank one pension promise hasn't been fulfilled till date and our veterans are planning to hold a protest rally on February 1 to remind the PM of his promise.
There are many more examples like the cuts in the crucial health and higher education budgets and easing environment norms that could cause damage to the environment in the long run.
This government is slyly using the ordinance route to avoid answering tough questions on their misgovernance in Parliament. Meanwhile, through their affiliate wings, they have kept the people distracted with the love jihad, ghar wapsi, ten children and ramzaade debates. It has been seven months already and not a single promise has been fulfilled. It is time we took this government to task for its broken promises and going back on their "development agenda".