Bundelkhand, in Jalaun of Uttar Pradesh, a highly impoverished area at the border of UP and Madhya Pradesh, had the privilege of seeing the Prime Minister of India as the inaugurator of the 296 km long Bundelkhand Expressway last week. PM Modi, in his speech at the function, drew attention to the freebies culture being propagated by all non BJP state governments with the sole aim to garner support from voters. He further stated that people offering ‘revadi’, a popular north Indian sweet, are incapable of thinking big and therefore are unable to create large projects such as expressways, airports or defence corridors. Since they were pre-occupied with distributing government sweets (freebies), it was only Modi and his BJP that were thinking for development of the country. His call was for defeating this kind of low level thinking currently observed in the country’s politics. The PM said the youth of India had to especially guard against the growth of such a culture.
Undoubtedly, the offering of freebies by all, yes all, parties before elections is an unhealthy practice in a democracy. Yet, many social welfare projects that have been not only declared but also very successfully implemented by most state governments across the length and breadth of this nation have definitely helped the poorest of the poor. Such freebies, once a standard operating procedure for all parties in Tamil Nadu, have now spread all over this country. It is not as if the BJP has not offered such pre poll condiments itself even in Uttar Pradesh. India’s economy still suffers from the Demonetization of November 2016. That sudden blow on cash was claimed to have been done to kill black (unaccounted) money, stop terror funding and destroy the counterfeit currency business that was being promoted by Pakistan. All these assertions are being proven false over and over again. Only one goal was successfully achieved. The opposition to the BJP in UP lost all its cash at that time and the 2017 elections went in favor of Modi’s political outfit. The cost to the nation, for that electoral victory of the BJP, has been stupendous. Similarly, the 2022 UP Assembly elections also saw a slew of promises from the incumbent Yogi Adityanath led BJP government which included bicycles, laptops and uniforms for students to specially and temporarily hiked payment for collection of sugar cane to farmers among various other such freebies. Therefore, it is untrue to claim that the culture of ‘revadi’ (pre poll sops) is limited to non BJP parties alone.
Come elections and all those big sounding, holier than thou political leaders change to meek little scurrying rats holding out attractive gifts for the bulk of the voters. Sad truth is that none of them has been seen even trying to be different and calling a spade a hammer. On the other hand, many recent developments demonstrate the mindset controlling the Central government decisions. Most airports and ports of India, we are told, now belong to only one single individual. The policies implemented lately have all gone to favor only one huge corporate body which has successfully cornered the airlines market. In other words, the sky above India, too, has been privatized.
Railways are under the hammer, only delay is an opportune moment. Life Insurance Corporation (LIC) has been grievously damaged in the market because of the Central government initiatives to do so. Hindustan Aeronautics is down in the dumps because no new project is being given to it but, instead, private players are being encouraged to enter the defense production arena. Government bends to pressure from the automobile industry lobby not to allow entry of a 100% electric vehicle like Tesla, whereas that same lobby accepts a Volvo to enter the market as it is going to introduce a dated IC based engine technology. Banks are being merged and the government is on an overdrive to privatize them, without ever considering how to make the nationalized banks healthy and trustworthy. If the Congress led government had damaged the banks, these long 8 years of the BJP administration should be considered as ample time to turn them around.
All these must not divert our attention from the severe blow given to the poor by the increase of GST from today on essential food items, whether living in Bundelkhand or Bhubaneswar, and the resultant economic damage that will be caused to their finances.