Without an iota of doubt, the outcome of the elections recently held in five states have had a stimulating impact on various quarters within the Congress and so called allied groups sharing a symbiotic relationship indulged in combined pursuit of occupying positions of power without realizing it brings in a plethora of responsibilities as well.
In a way it’s a validation to the crown prince of the oldest party of the nation. After a close fight in Karnataka earlier this year, Congress and allies have managed to keep BJP out of power in three states, perceived to be the saffron stronghold. Definitely winning team has reasons to celebrate. But one should not overlook the fact despite anti-incumbency, the victory of the Congress in Madhya Pradesh was not a sweeping one.
Similarly in Rajasthan, where the electorate doesn’t favour a party for two consecutive terms, BJP put up a remarkable fight. Nevertheless BJP has to undertake a serious post facto study what could have been done better to win people’s mandate. Many political pundits gave a lot of emphasis to these elections terming those as semifinals to 2019 general elections which are of course open to many views not free from contradictions. We all understand in a democracy, its desirable to witness, power changes hands at the same time the government of the day has a non-negotiable obligation to genuinely serve its people rather than resorting to various gimmicks just to appease a few sections of the society devoid of any enduring benefits.
Ironically there have been large-scale deviation in the sense the spirit of welfare measures has been heavily diluted in order to simply make it politically expedient and not being mindful of their potential for the real development. Farm loan waiver is a classic case in hand to talk about. We have had battery of economists to define poverty and poor in this country but we in India honestly do not need an economist or any expert for that matter to help us figure out who is a poor. Probably that is something all pervasive and our political class still don’t feel ashamed that a large chunk of our nationals live an unspeakable life even seventy years after we began to rule ourselves. If the idea is to reach out to the farmers reeling under agrarian distress, we should well recognize that most of them avail loans from informal sources which means the so-called waiver is a mere grandstanding by ruling party and holds little ground in reality. We are not even getting into the threshold analysis which by itself is discriminatory and rules out a sizable portion of the loan takers apart from onerous conditions set out to qualify for the so call “benefit” in that space. Next aspect could be the lack of monitoring mechanism to oversee its execution. Therefore, the net impression is such measures are only subservient to the myopic political ambition and has nothing to do with healing the distressed farmers. No attempt is being made here for prescribing the solutions but certainly it’s quite disturbing to see the signals it sends to the domestic as well global audience on the path we aspire to adopt to galvanize our economic prosperity.
Let’s switch the topic. In current environment, no discussion is complete without touching upon demonetization and GST hence let’s agree to spare a few moments. Before entering into the merits of the argument in favor of these structural reforms, it’s essential to note, lately elections are fought on strategies advanced by image consultant, marketing professionals and so many other functional experts from diverse fields but seldom having had any direct public service experience. Nothing wrong in it in principle. But it’s dangerous to approach Politics and Governance by pure play of brand building techniques relying on unfounded theorems.
Spirit of serving people is qualitatively different from running a business on commercial principles. Let’s make no mistakes, no major political party is an exception and immune to this trend. We get to hear both sides of arguments on these two issues and many times they appear to be convincing in either way. But what is surprising, the messages finally get transmitted to target electorates not necessarily the full story rather only those bytes as part of selective cherry picking. For example, even the vivid opponents of the ruling dispensations do not criticize GST as a concept but yes, every time they get a chance to air their voice they don’t forget to mention its hurting the economy though temporarily. They further go onto assert GST and Demo ensured many players in small scale went off the space which are unverifiable in many ways. Let’s remind ourselves after two quarters of the GST roll out, the important indicators started showing results exactly the way expected which means it was well calibrated and no matter which party was in office then, had to go through the similar experience. How fair is it to blame an unprecedented both legislative and executive actions to bring the indirect tax regime to its current shape! Initial troubles are inevitable in country of our size and diversity and we had to deal with issues as it emerged. If we extend our discussion to Demonetization, we again conclude almost the similar feelings like a lot of press personnel kind of putting words into the mouth of members of the general public that “Are you not angry with this inhuman move by central government?”
Not for a moment it is said that’s the single best way to curb grey economy but positively that acted as a catalyst step in our march towards a formal economy despite there are numerous arguments against. Off late we have seen certain unpleasant developments in very high offices of our major institutions which was a fodder on the platter for oppositions to target the central government saying it has lost control over the institutions. We also have seen how a particular defense procurement was relentlessly termed as a dubious transaction though the Apex court awarded clean chit saying it’s a Government to Government deal and the courts have no might to compare the prices and there seems to be no irregularities in the deal. The true challenge for our countrymen, are we aligned on where we wish to land in foreseeable future or we are just playing into the hands of those who are in the business of promoting their own interest and severely compromising the aspiration of the millennial generation.
(Views expressed by the author are personal.)
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