What has Modi rule achieved? Like the serial derailments and accidents every months in Indian Railways, the Modi Government has derailed and crashed India’s economy.
Today:
GDP growth at a three-year low of 5.7%
Fuel prices are at all-time high even though the cost of importing crude oil has halved from 2011
Job growth is at an 8-year low in 8 crucial sectors
Note Ban and GST have hit the informal sector badly, destroying livelihoods
Non-performing assets (NPAs) of banks – i.e loans that are unlikely to be repaid – are at an all-time high
Rural wages are at a decadal low, as agriculture – which accounts for 47 per cent of jobs – contracted 0.2 per cent in 2014-15, growing 1 per cent in 2015-16
The formation of companies has slowed to 2009 levels, and existing companies are growing at 2 per cent, the lowest in five years
Ridiculously, Amit Shah has tried to explain away the economic slowdown by citing ‘technical reasons’! Shah and Modi need to be reminded that this is not a minor delay in a local train or a temporary problem in the TV connection, where they can get away by saying ‘takniki kharabiyon se thodi der se chal rahe hain’ (we’re slightly delayed because of technical troubles) or ‘rukavat ke liye khed hai’ (regrets for the temporary disruption)! Even BJP leader Subramanian Swamy is admitting that the economy has crashed. If Modi is steering the economy he is squarely responsible for the crash. Economist Jean Dréze had compared demonetization in a booming economy to shooting at the tyres of a racing car: that is precisely what Note Ban and GST have done.
In 2015, Modi had addressed Assembly election campaigns saying, “If because of my good luck, prices of petrol and diesel get reduced and common man saves more, then what is need for bringing someone who is unlucky?” If Modi took credit for falling rates of global crude oil then, will he at least take credit for his own Government’s failure to curb fuel prices in spite of low global prices, now?
As usual, the Modi Government’s mantra is to try and build consent for anti-people policies by spreading communal poison. The most ridiculous recent instance of this tired ploy is Swarajya Mag, a right-wing magazine claiming that high oil taxes and resulting high fuel prices are “an antidote to Jihadi Islam”!
The Yogi Government’s promise of farm loan waivers and Modi’s Crop Insurance scheme has also proved to be a cruel joke. UP farmers have been getting loan waivers as low as one paisa, Rs 12 and so on! Meanwhile, a Madhya Pradesh farmer Badami Lal got Rs 4.70 in a crop loss claim he had filed under the Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana! The highest crop insurance amount among MP farmers was Rs 194.24, which a farmer Neela Bai got after losing almost her total soya bean crop: she had paid a premium of Rs 5,220 for the insurance policy!
Modi ji – your ‘Acche Din’ (Good Times) are turning out to be the worst nightmare ever for the people of India.
And Indian people are seeing through your attempt to escape responsibility by getting your tame propagandist TV anchors to shift the agenda by stoking Hindu-Muslim hatred.
We demand jobs, not mobs!
Our vehicles need low fuel prices – they can’t run on hot air from Modi’s speeches!
Our farmers demand their rights – not cruel ‘waivers’ or ‘insurance’ of a few paise of rupees or bullets in answer to their demands!
Our students need education – not hatred and violence disguised as ‘nationalism’ on the campuses!
