VOX POPULI
Modi has talked recently of the last 6 decades having been wasted but his decade from 2014-23 will be remembered by history as the lost decade just like Covid has imposed a lost 3 years for our students in education. Modi needs to remember that if we disregard history and do not give value to the contributions of those who have passed by, then we negate our present position and there is no meaning in our present existence. There is also the issue of gratitude to our predecessors which if we do not express, we are shameless.
As for the 2014-24 decade history will record as the beginning of sectarian killings extraordinary in their brutality that has not been seen earlier in our timeless Hindu culture, the attempt to stifle student voices in our temples of learning, the use of central enforcement agencies to serve narrow political ends, the sucking out of cash from the economy in the name of Demonetisation thus wreaking havoc on the livelihoods of the people mostly the poor, the daily wagers and the migrant workers. The biggest success of Demonetisation if you can call it that was that as the poor and needy got hit and lakhs of businesses in the MSME sector closed down the rich got richer and multiplied their wealth many times over. What followed thereafter was the withdrawal of 'special status' for Jammu & Kashmir on the specious reason that it had gone on long enough and it was time enough for exercising control by the Centre in the affairs of the State to reduce terrorism by making it a Union Territory. This was done perforce peacefully but under threat of a massive mobilisation of paramilitary forces in the State which effectively cowed down any opposition to the measure. And thus the 'normalisation of Jammu & Kashmir' was achieved without a murmur. However, now it is proving that nothing was achieved. The terror has started again specifically targeted at that and the Pandits almost forcefully resettled there are wanting to leave Kashmir which the administration is desperately trying to stop. Apart from not agreeing to the Pandits request for transfer to Jammu, the government recently broke the 310 day old agitation on this issue by stopping the payment of salaries. The Pandits with no financial means to continue the strike had to call it off. We then had the farmers agitation who were looking for remunerative prices for their crops and even with the avowed promise of doubling farmers income the government refused to meet them for discussions for a long time under one pretext or other calling them separatists and traitors. Finally after more than a year of agitation with the farmers camping on the outskirts of Delhi through the seasons of heat, rain and cold, meetings were held to discuss the farmers issues and most of their demands were accepted. But the unfortunate part is that even today on the agreements accepted, the government has not implemented them. The issues still remain pending and in the balance with the farmers getting more and more upset by the day. Instead the government gives a pittance of Rs. 6000 per year as if the farmers are beggars and publicises this dole to the skies as yet another achievement of the government.
If this was not enough another divisive step was initiated in the CAA that led to public protests in Delhi and Assam notably, that later culminated in riots in Delhi. Deliberate creation of laws that take exception against any particular community is wrong as the CAA proposed to give citizenship to religious minorities coming from neighbouring countries. Thus the CAA not putting the Muslims on the same pedestal as others on the plea of religious persecution cannot be tolerated by well-meaning people. In Assam the NRC and the CAA was launched as twinned weapons to 'weed out' illegal immigrants but the process went awry and those who had stayed in the State for 40-50 years but lacked proper documents were declared illegal and moved to detention centres with the further threat of deportation. This created major turmoil since families were being broken up and the majority of such cases were Muslims. The same issues as in Assam affected some parts of North Bengal and with the TMC in Kolkata and the BJP at the Centre being at loggerheads, Mamata Banerjee stood firm saying no NRC or CAA would be implemented in Bengal. In Delhi where some localities who were likely to be hit by CAA resorted to agitations blockading public parks and some roads and were abused in the same manner as the farmers and were called separatists and anti-nationals with BJP politicians giving open threats that the demonstrators would be put to the sword. Matters flared up after this and riots ensued with police remaining mute spectators and politicians fanning the flames making inflammatory speeches condemning the protestors.
And after all this the dreaded COVID virus appeared on the horizon. Life for people around the world was turned upside down in a matter of weeks with no known antidote for the virus. Countries started shutting down entry of visitors and even within the country localities, towns and cities were shut down in the hope that the transmission of the virus could be broken if the chain of person to person infection was cut. However progressively solutions emerged with different countries announcing their work on the antidote and India also had 2 versions of the antidote made by 2 different Cos. Whereas foreign Cos. in their own countries were supported by their governments with financial help sufficiently in advance to expedite the availability of the antidote or vaccine India dawdled but finally relented by releasing funds and the vaccines arrived. If the vaccines had been made available earlier by at least 6 months maybe many more lives would have been saved. Here the problem was with the Indian psyche where people are filled with their own importance and power and fail to grasp ground realities and will act only when compelled by circumstance or people/countries. Modi's government was no different and waited until the last minute to give funding for the vaccine program when no other avenue was left. The vaccination program started apace and the virus was brought under some semblance of control with a combination of the vaccine and lockdowns in areas where it was surging ahead. The lockdowns created a massive dislocation of people's lives which was unavoidable but it hit the hardest the daily wage and migrant workers. The migrant workers with no avenues of work during the lockdown and fearing for their lives started moving back to the rural areas so that they could be with their families. That is how the virus travelled to India's smaller towns and villages where medical facilities were scarce. When it seemed there was some semblance of control over the spread of the virus Assembly elections were announced to be held in April 2021. It had been advised not to hold public rallies before the elections and if held, to take take adequate precautions against the virus but the BJP with Modi in the lead threw caution to the winds because 'Bengal had to be won.' The virus showing trends of the 2nd wave at this time was fuelled by this indiscretion and ramped out in a much more virulent form. Cases exceeded 1 lakh per day across the country overloading medical facilities and hospitals and since the infection affected the respiratory organs the demand for medical oxygen shot up with demand overstripping supply resulting in shortages and deaths increased dramatically. Where the Modi government should have been closely monitoring the virus and forecasting its trends, the priorities were given to winning elections an obsession with Modi and his cohorts which increased the infections manifold. As a slap in the face for Modi and his cohorts, the BJP lost Bengal with the TMC winning by a massive margin. A closer review would have predicted the likelihood of a shortage in medical oxygen and the country would have been better prepared and many lives saved. The total deaths arising from the COVID virus according to official figures was close to 5 Lakhs. However independent estimates put the deaths closer to 6 or even 8 times this figure which is 30-40 Lakhs. There is an undercounting of the fatalities as far as the official figures are concerned since many deaths were not counted or not attributed to the virus. Apart from this untold misery was unleashed on the common people like on the migrant workers who desperately sought to return to their village homes some even walking hundreds of Km. and many died because of this. The exodus of migrant workers was triggered by the lockdowns which were unavoidable but because of that they were unable to buy daily necessities if they had money and then with establishments shut there was no way for them to earn money. Thus the safest option in their minds was return to their villages. Just like in the aftermath of the Demonetisation in 2018 the COVID virus started to affect the economy with businesses mostly small and medium shutting down, people losing their jobs, daily wage workers being left with lesser avenues for work, there was thus less money in the hands of the people. There was no bail-out for this from the government except for free food-grains being given to families as the government has touted for 800 Million people. But this was too little and too late. Those who got this needing to buy other things tended to sell the food-grains into the free market with petty traders making windfall gains. However with time the virus abated and things returned to some sort of normalcy as we see it today. On the COVID virus the approach of the government is the ‘alls well that ends well' scenario but they have failed to realise that more action in time and more caution before the 2nd wave spiralled, could have saved at least half a million lives. This tragedy and its magnitude is beyond the understanding of the present leadership of the BJP who with their bumbling actions only know how to inflict hardship, misery and loss of life on the common people. The problem with Modi is that he refuses to see and recognise reality and believes that bluff and bluster will bail him out of embarrassing situations.
Thus Modi and his government are living in denial when faced with facts. World rating agencies put India at the bottom half of most indices. The right way is to engage with them and show what is the correct position not just take potshots at the agencies saying you are wrong or your procedure is wrong. India stands to lose credibility by not participating and discussing the issues. Actually India's data for the last 8-9 years is a shambles having been first negated, then contested about procedure, with no new procedure set up the data collection has been suspended on most parameters. The government and the RBI are thus shooting in the dark and hoping against hope that they do not get caught out. Representative of this is that the Oct-Dec 2022 the GDP figures saw a drop to 4.4% but GST collections have remained buoyant at just over Rs. 1.4 Lakh crores in the same period which is a tad bit contradictory. But then even the self-styled BJP economy pundits are saying in tongue-in-cheek fashion that the GDP figures could be wrong!
This essentially is the story of the lost decade since 2014.
Jaishankar's axe to grind against the Congress and the Gandhi family is now out in the open with him coming out saying that Indira Gandhi had transferred his father, K Subrahmanyam out of the post of Secretary of Defence Production and then later Rajv Gandhi promoted a junior officer above him. Modi's grouse against the Nehru-Gandhi clan is well-known which everyone in the BJP hierarchy is echoing in the manner of bit players in an orchestra where they follow the conductor or leader. That Jaishankar is also doing this is disappointing since a person who served in the higher echelon of our bureaucracy is expected to have a balance in speech and action and that too coming from the Indian Foreign Service. On second thought Jaishankar's comments lately follow a pattern of injudiciousness since in the description of Sushma Swaraj by Secy of State Pompeo, he had not given a proper reply to the then US Secretary of State. The latter had described in his book - Never Give an Inch: Fighting for the America I Love, of Sushma Swaraj, our then Foreign Minister of being a a goofball and a heartland political hack and ascribed it to Jaishankar. The article in Deccan Herald, Bengaluru - Has BJP’s ‘Macaulayputra’ been exposed by Pompeo? - by Bharat Bhushan on 31 Jan 2023 covers this reproducing excerpts from the book. Jaishankar presented a strong rebuttal of this when this came out recently and has claimed of having defended the respected Sushma Swaraj. These come across as any road rage incident where one normally takes the offensive to cow down the other party. In any case, he has to say that to defend himself from the damaging excerpts in the book to save his reputation. One must say that he did not acquit himself honourably in this matter. Lately, he has been extolling Modi which is not out of place in the BJP since each fall over each other to praise the Supreme Leader but it sounds a bit incongruous since Jaishankar's illustrious father, K Subrahmanyam, had called out Modi as Chief Minister in Gujarat during 2002 by saying 'dharma had been killed' during the riots at that time. Times change, people change but it is a bit unusual for a professional diplomat to become an avid sycophant.
by
AAM ADMI
Issue No. : N 022
Issue Date: 6th March 2023
Contents:
AAM ADMI
Issue No. : N 022
Issue Date: 6th March 2023
Contents:
1. The Lost Decade : 2014-2023, Under Narendra Modi
2. India's Presidency of the G-20 Being Turned Into A Tamasha
3. EAM Jaishankar's Balance In Speech And Action Has Been Disturbed
4. Modi's Hollow Claims
The Lost Decade : 2014-2023, Under Narendra Modi
Modi has talked recently of the last 6 decades having been wasted but his decade from 2014-23 will be remembered by history as the lost decade just like Covid has imposed a lost 3 years for our students in education. Modi needs to remember that if we disregard history and do not give value to the contributions of those who have passed by, then we negate our present position and there is no meaning in our present existence. There is also the issue of gratitude to our predecessors which if we do not express, we are shameless.
As for the 2014-24 decade history will record as the beginning of sectarian killings extraordinary in their brutality that has not been seen earlier in our timeless Hindu culture, the attempt to stifle student voices in our temples of learning, the use of central enforcement agencies to serve narrow political ends, the sucking out of cash from the economy in the name of Demonetisation thus wreaking havoc on the livelihoods of the people mostly the poor, the daily wagers and the migrant workers. The biggest success of Demonetisation if you can call it that was that as the poor and needy got hit and lakhs of businesses in the MSME sector closed down the rich got richer and multiplied their wealth many times over. What followed thereafter was the withdrawal of 'special status' for Jammu & Kashmir on the specious reason that it had gone on long enough and it was time enough for exercising control by the Centre in the affairs of the State to reduce terrorism by making it a Union Territory. This was done perforce peacefully but under threat of a massive mobilisation of paramilitary forces in the State which effectively cowed down any opposition to the measure. And thus the 'normalisation of Jammu & Kashmir' was achieved without a murmur. However, now it is proving that nothing was achieved. The terror has started again specifically targeted at that and the Pandits almost forcefully resettled there are wanting to leave Kashmir which the administration is desperately trying to stop. Apart from not agreeing to the Pandits request for transfer to Jammu, the government recently broke the 310 day old agitation on this issue by stopping the payment of salaries. The Pandits with no financial means to continue the strike had to call it off. We then had the farmers agitation who were looking for remunerative prices for their crops and even with the avowed promise of doubling farmers income the government refused to meet them for discussions for a long time under one pretext or other calling them separatists and traitors. Finally after more than a year of agitation with the farmers camping on the outskirts of Delhi through the seasons of heat, rain and cold, meetings were held to discuss the farmers issues and most of their demands were accepted. But the unfortunate part is that even today on the agreements accepted, the government has not implemented them. The issues still remain pending and in the balance with the farmers getting more and more upset by the day. Instead the government gives a pittance of Rs. 6000 per year as if the farmers are beggars and publicises this dole to the skies as yet another achievement of the government.
If this was not enough another divisive step was initiated in the CAA that led to public protests in Delhi and Assam notably, that later culminated in riots in Delhi. Deliberate creation of laws that take exception against any particular community is wrong as the CAA proposed to give citizenship to religious minorities coming from neighbouring countries. Thus the CAA not putting the Muslims on the same pedestal as others on the plea of religious persecution cannot be tolerated by well-meaning people. In Assam the NRC and the CAA was launched as twinned weapons to 'weed out' illegal immigrants but the process went awry and those who had stayed in the State for 40-50 years but lacked proper documents were declared illegal and moved to detention centres with the further threat of deportation. This created major turmoil since families were being broken up and the majority of such cases were Muslims. The same issues as in Assam affected some parts of North Bengal and with the TMC in Kolkata and the BJP at the Centre being at loggerheads, Mamata Banerjee stood firm saying no NRC or CAA would be implemented in Bengal. In Delhi where some localities who were likely to be hit by CAA resorted to agitations blockading public parks and some roads and were abused in the same manner as the farmers and were called separatists and anti-nationals with BJP politicians giving open threats that the demonstrators would be put to the sword. Matters flared up after this and riots ensued with police remaining mute spectators and politicians fanning the flames making inflammatory speeches condemning the protestors.
And after all this the dreaded COVID virus appeared on the horizon. Life for people around the world was turned upside down in a matter of weeks with no known antidote for the virus. Countries started shutting down entry of visitors and even within the country localities, towns and cities were shut down in the hope that the transmission of the virus could be broken if the chain of person to person infection was cut. However progressively solutions emerged with different countries announcing their work on the antidote and India also had 2 versions of the antidote made by 2 different Cos. Whereas foreign Cos. in their own countries were supported by their governments with financial help sufficiently in advance to expedite the availability of the antidote or vaccine India dawdled but finally relented by releasing funds and the vaccines arrived. If the vaccines had been made available earlier by at least 6 months maybe many more lives would have been saved. Here the problem was with the Indian psyche where people are filled with their own importance and power and fail to grasp ground realities and will act only when compelled by circumstance or people/countries. Modi's government was no different and waited until the last minute to give funding for the vaccine program when no other avenue was left. The vaccination program started apace and the virus was brought under some semblance of control with a combination of the vaccine and lockdowns in areas where it was surging ahead. The lockdowns created a massive dislocation of people's lives which was unavoidable but it hit the hardest the daily wage and migrant workers. The migrant workers with no avenues of work during the lockdown and fearing for their lives started moving back to the rural areas so that they could be with their families. That is how the virus travelled to India's smaller towns and villages where medical facilities were scarce. When it seemed there was some semblance of control over the spread of the virus Assembly elections were announced to be held in April 2021. It had been advised not to hold public rallies before the elections and if held, to take take adequate precautions against the virus but the BJP with Modi in the lead threw caution to the winds because 'Bengal had to be won.' The virus showing trends of the 2nd wave at this time was fuelled by this indiscretion and ramped out in a much more virulent form. Cases exceeded 1 lakh per day across the country overloading medical facilities and hospitals and since the infection affected the respiratory organs the demand for medical oxygen shot up with demand overstripping supply resulting in shortages and deaths increased dramatically. Where the Modi government should have been closely monitoring the virus and forecasting its trends, the priorities were given to winning elections an obsession with Modi and his cohorts which increased the infections manifold. As a slap in the face for Modi and his cohorts, the BJP lost Bengal with the TMC winning by a massive margin. A closer review would have predicted the likelihood of a shortage in medical oxygen and the country would have been better prepared and many lives saved. The total deaths arising from the COVID virus according to official figures was close to 5 Lakhs. However independent estimates put the deaths closer to 6 or even 8 times this figure which is 30-40 Lakhs. There is an undercounting of the fatalities as far as the official figures are concerned since many deaths were not counted or not attributed to the virus. Apart from this untold misery was unleashed on the common people like on the migrant workers who desperately sought to return to their village homes some even walking hundreds of Km. and many died because of this. The exodus of migrant workers was triggered by the lockdowns which were unavoidable but because of that they were unable to buy daily necessities if they had money and then with establishments shut there was no way for them to earn money. Thus the safest option in their minds was return to their villages. Just like in the aftermath of the Demonetisation in 2018 the COVID virus started to affect the economy with businesses mostly small and medium shutting down, people losing their jobs, daily wage workers being left with lesser avenues for work, there was thus less money in the hands of the people. There was no bail-out for this from the government except for free food-grains being given to families as the government has touted for 800 Million people. But this was too little and too late. Those who got this needing to buy other things tended to sell the food-grains into the free market with petty traders making windfall gains. However with time the virus abated and things returned to some sort of normalcy as we see it today. On the COVID virus the approach of the government is the ‘alls well that ends well' scenario but they have failed to realise that more action in time and more caution before the 2nd wave spiralled, could have saved at least half a million lives. This tragedy and its magnitude is beyond the understanding of the present leadership of the BJP who with their bumbling actions only know how to inflict hardship, misery and loss of life on the common people. The problem with Modi is that he refuses to see and recognise reality and believes that bluff and bluster will bail him out of embarrassing situations.
Thus Modi and his government are living in denial when faced with facts. World rating agencies put India at the bottom half of most indices. The right way is to engage with them and show what is the correct position not just take potshots at the agencies saying you are wrong or your procedure is wrong. India stands to lose credibility by not participating and discussing the issues. Actually India's data for the last 8-9 years is a shambles having been first negated, then contested about procedure, with no new procedure set up the data collection has been suspended on most parameters. The government and the RBI are thus shooting in the dark and hoping against hope that they do not get caught out. Representative of this is that the Oct-Dec 2022 the GDP figures saw a drop to 4.4% but GST collections have remained buoyant at just over Rs. 1.4 Lakh crores in the same period which is a tad bit contradictory. But then even the self-styled BJP economy pundits are saying in tongue-in-cheek fashion that the GDP figures could be wrong!
This essentially is the story of the lost decade since 2014.
India's Presidency of the G-20 Being Turned Into A Tamasha
Much is being made out of India's Presidency of the G-20 and in the cult of event management in which Modi excels through which the events are being played out to drum up a larger than life image of Modi. Little do people realise that such multilateral government groups achieve little or nothing at all. Not only that India in the past has hosted the NAM summits, the CHOGM meetings and was the first name in the Non Aligned Movement (NAM) for many years. So it is nothing that people look up to India in the world. It has been a common enough practice. But it is not like with Modi who wanting himself to be seen as a world leader goes around hugging other nation's dignitaries to their visible grimaces as seen on TV and goes on a weekend retreat with the Chinese Premier and within a year of that China attack us at multiple places on our northern borders spread out over a year of that. Was this an artful exercise to exert an influence over your most difficult neighbour? The G-20 summits held elsewhere in the world are held at one location with a retreat thrown in at another place. There was no need to take the current summit across India at great cost, inconvenience and nuisance to the public in terms of traffic dislocations etc. This is only being done with the added public relations exercise thrown in to build the Modi image before the upcoming Assembly elections leading up to the Lok Sabha elections in 2024. The money being wasted could have been well spent on public welfare measures which we desperately need.
EAM Jaishankar's Balance In Speech And Action Has Been Disturbed
Jaishankar's axe to grind against the Congress and the Gandhi family is now out in the open with him coming out saying that Indira Gandhi had transferred his father, K Subrahmanyam out of the post of Secretary of Defence Production and then later Rajv Gandhi promoted a junior officer above him. Modi's grouse against the Nehru-Gandhi clan is well-known which everyone in the BJP hierarchy is echoing in the manner of bit players in an orchestra where they follow the conductor or leader. That Jaishankar is also doing this is disappointing since a person who served in the higher echelon of our bureaucracy is expected to have a balance in speech and action and that too coming from the Indian Foreign Service. On second thought Jaishankar's comments lately follow a pattern of injudiciousness since in the description of Sushma Swaraj by Secy of State Pompeo, he had not given a proper reply to the then US Secretary of State. The latter had described in his book - Never Give an Inch: Fighting for the America I Love, of Sushma Swaraj, our then Foreign Minister of being a a goofball and a heartland political hack and ascribed it to Jaishankar. The article in Deccan Herald, Bengaluru - Has BJP’s ‘Macaulayputra’ been exposed by Pompeo? - by Bharat Bhushan on 31 Jan 2023 covers this reproducing excerpts from the book. Jaishankar presented a strong rebuttal of this when this came out recently and has claimed of having defended the respected Sushma Swaraj. These come across as any road rage incident where one normally takes the offensive to cow down the other party. In any case, he has to say that to defend himself from the damaging excerpts in the book to save his reputation. One must say that he did not acquit himself honourably in this matter. Lately, he has been extolling Modi which is not out of place in the BJP since each fall over each other to praise the Supreme Leader but it sounds a bit incongruous since Jaishankar's illustrious father, K Subrahmanyam, had called out Modi as Chief Minister in Gujarat during 2002 by saying 'dharma had been killed' during the riots at that time. Times change, people change but it is a bit unusual for a professional diplomat to become an avid sycophant.
Modi's Hollow Claims
During his reply to the President's address in Parliament Narendra Modi came across as if he was speaking at an election meeting. Instead of replying to issues raised he indulged in reciting the supposed measures that his government has done for the welfare of the people. Claiming that he has the support and confidence of 140 crore Indians which is clearly hyperbole since in the last Lok Sabha polls the BJP got just 23 crore votes. So Modi's magnification is 6 times which can be applied to anything that he says. Thus by applying it, take only one-sixth and that too after further verification. He also said that India is the 5th largest economy in GDP terms in the world. In this he is not wrong but the correct measure for a Prime Minister to look at is the per capita where India ranks 145th and on per capita in purchasing power terms the country's ranking is a little better at 128th. The rich are getting richer in India with 1% owning 21% of the national income and 10% owning in excess of 50% while the bottom 50% contribute only 10%. In wealth accumulation since the 1990's the top 1% accounted for more than 38% of the new wealth with the acceleration mostly from 2020, coinciding with the start of the COVID pandemic, which trend reflects worldwide where the rich got richer during Covid. Thus there is an urgent need for the redistribution of wealth in India to make it more equitable.
During his reply to the President's address in Parliament Narendra Modi came across as if he was speaking at an election meeting. Instead of replying to issues raised he indulged in reciting the supposed measures that his government has done for the welfare of the people. Claiming that he has the support and confidence of 140 crore Indians which is clearly hyperbole since in the last Lok Sabha polls the BJP got just 23 crore votes. So Modi's magnification is 6 times which can be applied to anything that he says. Thus by applying it, take only one-sixth and that too after further verification. He also said that India is the 5th largest economy in GDP terms in the world. In this he is not wrong but the correct measure for a Prime Minister to look at is the per capita where India ranks 145th and on per capita in purchasing power terms the country's ranking is a little better at 128th. The rich are getting richer in India with 1% owning 21% of the national income and 10% owning in excess of 50% while the bottom 50% contribute only 10%. In wealth accumulation since the 1990's the top 1% accounted for more than 38% of the new wealth with the acceleration mostly from 2020, coinciding with the start of the COVID pandemic, which trend reflects worldwide where the rich got richer during Covid. Thus there is an urgent need for the redistribution of wealth in India to make it more equitable.
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