Two years of Gross Misgovernance

The country has witnessed two years of gross mis governance and a grinding halt to the economy, leading farmers, farm labour, students and youth facing an unprecedented agrarian and employment crisis.

Shri Narendra Modi and the BJP who came to power shouting Vikas/ Development from the roof top has become a sad caricature of insensitive and inefficient administration coupled with relentless controversial polarising statements by its leaders on one hand and organization of Mela events on the other. The sole aim of the poisonous statements and Mela events being that to divert the attention of the people and the media from real issues of Development.

Be it JOBS, AGRICUTURE, FOOD INFLATION,EXPORTS, MANUFACTURING or GDP, all indices affecting the ordinary citizen‎ of this country are in dire straits. Each and every Mela Event that the Prime Minister tries to sell to the people of this country, be it Make In India, Smart Cities, Digital India, Namami Gange or a Muscular Foreign Policy- All have proved to be NON STARTERS or plain damp squibs.

If at all, Shri Modi and his Government have succeeded brilliantly in helping their Crony Suit Boot friends grow at the cost of people, ‎help Black Money creators and owners convert their Black into White through a Fair and Lovely Scheme, made wilful Bank defaulters like Vijay Mallya and Lalit Modi flee the country and perpetuate the Vyapam Scam in MP, PDS Scam in Chattisgarh, Mining Scam in Rajasthan, Chikki Scam in Maharashtra and so on and so forth.

Even as the Government and the BJP embark upon yet another journey of selling JUMLAS to the people of India through Film Star studded programs, misleading Theme Songs and Boastful Press Conferences, the truth detailed hereafter is there for all to see.

• Shri Narendra Modi promised 20000000 (2 Crore) jobs every year. By this count we would have 4 crore jobs by now.
• Instead only 1,34000 (1.34 Lakh) jobs have been created, according to the official figures of Ministry of Labour, GOI. There was actually a decline of 20,000 jobs in 8 key industrial sectors between Oct-Dec, 2015. This is the slowest pace of job creation since 2009.
• The nation is staring at a huge unemployment crisis with 10-12 lakh young people joining the labour force each month. Leave apart creating 10 Crore jobs in 5 years, Modi Government will add 6 Crore youth to the unemployment queue by 2019.

• Farmers, Farm Labour and Rural India have paid the heaviest price for electing the BJP and Shri Narendra Modi. The insensitivity and callousness of Modi Government is reminder of the exploitative British regime, with successive tragedies unfolding in the form of droughts, unemployment, poverty and suicide owing to Government apathy. Agriculture sector accounts for 48.9% of total employment (NSSO 2011-12) in the country.
• Declining Agriculture Growth Rate : Two years of Modi Government have witnessed lowest rate of agriculture growth indicating the poor state of India’s ‘Annadata’. From 4.25% in 2013-14 to, agricultural growth slipped to -0.2% in 2014-15 and stands at a dismal 1% in 2015-16, averaging at 0.8%.
• There has been a steady decline in food grain and other essential crop production.
• Area under food grain cultivation came down from 1250 Lakh hectare under Congress Government to 1200 Lakh hectare under Modi Government.
• Per hectare production fell from 2,142 Kg/hectare in 2013-14 to 2,082 Kg/hectare under NDA Government
• Cultivation acreage for pulses declined from 252.1 Lakh hectare to 230 Lakh hectares and production went down from 785 Kg/hectare to 753 Kg/hectare.
• Pulses production dipped from 192.5 Lakh Tonnes in 2013-14 to 171.5 Lakh Tonnes in 2014-15.
• Nation is reeling under immense spiraling prices of Pulses that are being sold at around Rs 200/kg

Modi ji had chanted a solemn promise- “If Bhartiya Janta Party comes to power then Minimum Support Price would be determined at cost of production + 50% profit”.

Replying to a PIL in the Supreme Court, BJP Government took a shameful ‘U’ turn and replied on oath that cost of production +50% profit can never be given to the farmer .

On one hand, PM Modi chants ‘Anna Data Sukhi Bhava’ and diabolically stabs the farmers by giving him Un-remunerative prices. MSP has seen a paltry increase of 0.0 to 4.00%

Farmer’s debt :

• 52% of India’s farmers are in debt with an average debt burden of Rs 47,000 (according to NSSO survey in 2015)
• The Supreme Court expressed dismay at Rs 1,14,000 Crore of corporate loans being written off by banks since 2013-14, perhaps the largest write-off in a period of 48 months. On the other hand, farmers are committing suicides due to burden of debt. Why is Modi Government not giving relief to the vulnerable farmer?

Severe Drought: Callous Indifference

• This is the second consecutive year when India is reeling under severe drought. Nearly 40% of India’s population is plagued with a grave agrarian and drinking water crisis, and it takes the Supreme Court to direct the snoozing Modi Government to take basic relief measures in order to help the farmers.
• Farmers had to suffer untimely rains and hailstorm during Feb-April 2015 and continued drought situation this year have further compounded their worries. There is complete apathy of Modi Government towards them.
• Untimely rains and hailstorms affected 181 Lakh hectare cropped area in 14 states in the months of Feb-April 2015, a fact accepted by the Minister f or Agriculture in Lok Sabha. Prime Minister r educed this by 75 Lakh hectares to 106 Lakh hectares after disc ussions with the Chief Secretaries of states
• BJP Government’s indifference can be gauged from the fact that while states de manded Rs 41,722 Crore as Central Assistance for drought, Modi Government released a mere Rs 10,273 Crore for 10 states.

Even MNREGA snatched from farmers and farm labourers in distress

After having systematically cyt MNREGA funds by around 20 % in the first year, Modi Sarkar had announced that Modi Sarkar has announced that 50 additional days of employment will be offered under Mahatma Gandhi NREGA over the mandated 100 days, in the drought affected regions. However, the reality is that not even 50 days of employment is being offered.

Negligence on the part of BJP Government can be gauged from the fact that fund unavailability has limited the percentage of families availing even 100 days of work to mere 11.6%.

The wages paid under MGNREGA increased by 9% every year during Congress Government. Modi Government has drastically reduced MGNREGA wage rate increase to a mere 3.8%, thereby disempowering the poor.

Congress Government

Number of families availing 100 days of employment during 2012-2014 was 98,32,834

NDA Government

Number of families availing 100 days of employment during 2014-2016during 2014-2016 is 73,30,762

Farmer Suicide: A Monumental Tragedy

• 2,996 farmers have committed suicide in the year 2015 out of which 1841 are from Maharashtra
• 6,710 Farm Labourers’ committed suicide due to recession in the agricultural sector

Crashing Agricultural Exports :

• An increase of 600% was seen in the export of agricultural products during the tenure of the Congress Government.
• As compared to 42.6 billion USD in 2013-14, Agricultural Exports fell to 32.52 billion USD in 2015-16-a dip of around 25%.

Taking False Credit for Congress initiatives

Modi Government is busy publicizing that the schemes linked to agrarian sector such as Pradhan Mantri Krishi Sinchai Yojana, Deendayal Upadhyay Grameen Vidyutikaran Yojana, Soil Health Card, Pradhan Mantri Krishi Vikas Yojana and Neem Coated Urea Scheme etc are the Prime Minister’s brain waves. While the truth is that they are nothing but blatant attempts at plagiarism.

Fictitious GDP figures

• Officially, the economy grew at 7.3% in 2014-15 and 7.6% in 2015-16 based on the new method of GDP calculation. But, there is broad skepticism about the reality of this data.
• Even the Governor of the RBI and the Government’s Chief Economic Adviser expressed discomfort with the official growth data. Experts all across believe the actual growth rate is in the neighborhood of 5.5%.

Skyrocketing Prices: Poor in Peril – Hoarders go for a killing

While falling global crude and commodity prices have provided the Government with eyewash of low WPI (Wholesale Price Index), the average Indian continues to be at the receiving end of high food prices-making even basic Daal-Roti unaffordable.

• In 2015, prices of vegetables and pulses shot up like never before. Tur/Arhar dal continues to sell at around Rs. 200 per KG.
• In August 2015, wholesale onion prices reached a record high. More recently, onion prices have crashed completely. While on one hand, the consumer is crushed, on the other hand the farmers are getting bankrupt.

Oil Prices – BJP Profiteering at the cost of Common Man.

• International Crude Oil Prices have come down by 55.20% since the Modi Government took over on May 26, 2014.
• The price of crude was $108.05 on May 26, 2014, while the price of international crude was $48.41 on May 20, 2016.
• The Present Price of Diesel (In Delhi) is Rs 51.67per litre The Present Price of Petrol (In Delhi) is Rs 63.02 per litre
• The Price of Diesel has come down only by 8.9% and Petrol by 11.74% against the reduction in prices of International Crude by 55.20%
• The Price of Diesel according to the decrease in International Crude prices should be Rs 25.40/ltr
• The Price of Petrol according to the decrease in International Crude prices should be Rs 31.99/ltr

Exports in a free fall :

Manufacturing crisis looms large

Falling Industrial production –Unending Policy Paralysis!

• Growth in industrial production plunged to 0.1% in March 2016 due to poor performance of manufacturing and mining sectors coupled with sharp decline in output of capital goods. This is proof that ‘Make in India’ has been an abject flop- The Babbar Sher has been Mewing. The latest Nikkei/Market Manufacturing Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI) fell to a four-month low of 50.5 in April 2016.
• The manufacturing sector, which accounts for over 75% of the index, declined by 1.2% in March 2016 against a growth of 2.7% in same month a year ago.
• It is hardly surprising that the value of stalled projects stood at a mammoth Rs 9 Lakh Crore (7% of GDP) in early 2015. The situation has since only gotten worse - as of March, 2016 the value of stalled projects stood at alarming Rs 11.36 Lakh Crore.

Stalled Projects:
Number of stalled projects is highest since Modi Government took office. As of March 2016 there are 893 stalled projects, which is an increase of 17% since March 2014.
Is this not Policy Paralysis?

FDI inflow- Make in India goes for a toss

Non-Performing Assets (NPA’s) spiral

– BJP takes on RBI Governor for trying to improve the situation.

RSS red flags GST – BJP Deliberately Dithers!

Corruption : Being brazened out

Last two years have witnessed blatant corruption and impropriety against the BJP Chief Ministers, Union Ministers and leaders. Despite empty rhetoric of “Na Khaaunga Na Khane Dunga”, Prime Minister has chosen to brazen it out.

“Na Khaaunga Na Khane Dunga” to “Khao Piyo Aish Karo”

BLACK MONEY: Have you received Rs.15 Lakh in your bank account yet?

The pre-poll promise of Shri Narendra Modi to bring back the black money estimated at Rs 80 Lakh Crore within 100 days and deposit Rs 15-20 Lakh in every Indian’s Bank Account was perhaps one of his biggest jumlas- admitted as such by none less than the BJP President, Shri Amit Shah.

GSPC scam :

“The CAG report tabled in Gujarat Assembly on 31st March, 2016 exposes the false myth of ‘Gujarat Model’ and ‘Brand Namo’. Shockingly, it unveils the stark truth as to how Rs.19,716 crore of hard earned money of people of Gujarat was squandered away by Gujarat State Petroleum Corporation (GSPC) under the watch of the then Chief Minister, Shri Narendra Modi. In fact, CAG report is a telling irony of crony capitalism, malicious enrichment of private parties, ‘writing off’ public money invested in questionable international & domestic oil/gas reserves besides deliberate bleeding of State Public Sector Undertaking by a Chief Minister, who encouraged and institutionally supported plunder of State resources.

GSPC surrendered 45 Gas Blocks i.e 70.31% of the 64 Blocks owned by it. Shockingly, total loss to public exchequer from surrender of 45 Blocks is Rs 2992.72 Crores as per CAG. Out of these, loss on account of 11 Overseas Blocks that were surrendered is Rs 1757.46 Crores.

Not to be outdone, GSPC, under Shri Narendra Modi, gave 10% equity free of cost to a Canadian Company ‘Geo Global’ with a total capital of US$ 78! GSPC, even failed to recover the expenditure of Rs 2319.43 Crores spent from public expenditure on behalf of the two J-V partners i.e- Geo Global and Jubliant.

Never before have the state resources been plundered in this reckless fashion and loss caused to public exchequer as brought by the CAG. Shri Narendra Modi refuses to respond, leave apart placing the facts before the Nation.

Is this the reason for condoning Corruption by other BJP honchos.

• Vyapam Scam – 76,76,718 duped
• Chhattisgarh PDS scam – 36,000 Crores
• Rajasthan Mining scam- 43,000 Crores
• Maharsahtra Chikki Scam- 206 Crores
• Mallya Gate and Lalit Gate – you guess

Shri Modi’s embarrassing statements

• Shri Modi in Shanghai: “Earlier, you felt ashamed of being born Indian.”
• Shri Modi in Seoul: “There was a time when people used to say we don't know what sins we committed in our past life that we were born in Hindustan.”

Legitimizing Pakistan

Unprecedented Imbalance in India-China Relationship : Travesty of JHOOLA Diplomacy

• While hundreds of Chinese soldiers were intruding into Chunar area of Ladakh in September 2014, Modi ji was busy receiving the Chinese President in Gujarat and indulging in Jhoola and Dhokla diplomacy.
• While Modi ji continues to woo China, it has opposed India's bid for a permanent seat in the UN Security Council in August 2015.
• More importantly, China has vetoed a proposal by the UN to declare Masood Azhar as an international terrorist on UN List.
• During his May, 2015 visit, Modi ji unilaterally offered ‘Visa on Arrival’ to Chinese tourists but China continues to give stapled visa to Indian citizens of Arunachal Pradesh.
• In a belated move, India upped the ante with China by issuing visas to World Uyghur Congress leader Dolkun Isa, but took an immediate about turn, by cancelling the visa after Chinese protests.
• Construction of Chinese infrastructure projects in PoK - China is expanding its presence in Pakistan by building an 800-km-long road connecting Karakoram Pass on the border to Gwadar Port along with other projects passing through PoK, including power plants. The project, once completed, would give China immense strategic and diplomatic advantage over India.
• After a decade of India driven isolation of Pakistan as a state that sponsors terror, it has found legitimacy with different countries and forums on account of soft-peddling by BJP Government.

Globe-Trotting wasn’t part of your mandate Modi ji?

Internal Security in a a perilous situation

Pathankot attack – Double Jeopardy : First faced an attack and then invited Pakistan JIT to discredit India

Gurdaspur-Udhampur attack : Failure of intelligence, infiltration and cross border on the rise (More than 1000 till date)

Students in India:

Shattered dreams, broken promises, blatant Reprisal

• The spirit of debate and discussion, so critical for the development of a student’s personality, is being systematically attacked by none less than the Ministry of Human Resource Development itself. Modi Sarkar is hell bent on using an iron-fisted approach to suppress contrarian points of view, branding any criticism as ‘anti-national’.
• In a blatant example of its tendency to wipe out all disagreement, the HRD Ministry coerced IIT Madras to ban Ambedkar - Periyar Study Circle on 22nd May, 2015. A letter from Ministry was sent to the Director accusing the Study Circle of creating an ‘atmosphere of hatred’. We want to ask- Is demanding social justice spreading hatred?
• The FTII students at Pune protested for 148 days against the appointment of a mediocre small screen actor Shri Gajendra Chauhan as its Chairman, a post which had been previously adorned by distinguished personalities like Shri Shyam Benegal and Shri UR Ananthmurthy. While Shri Chauhan continues to arrogate, students were beaten up, arrested and persecuted.

Authoritarian Behavior & Caste Discrimination in Hyderabad Central University (HCU)

• Led by Union Minister, Shri Bandaru Dattatreya, BJP MLC Ramachandra Rao and ABVP activists, dalit scholars were persecuted and punished by Vice Chancellor and University authorities in HCU. Not to be outdone, HRD Minister, Smt. Smriti Irani and her Ministry wrote to the University for initiating action against students. BJP National General Secretary, P. Muralidhar Rao and ABVP activists went to the extreme of questioning the ‘SC’ status to describing the students as “Anti-National”.
• This led to the tragic suicide of Rohith Vemula. ABVP’s anti dalit stance, the University administration’s decision to stop his scholarship and bar him from all public spaces only to fight a proxy war where Smt. Irani and Shri Bandaru Dattatreya speaks volumes of the extent the BJP can go to implement the RSS’ anti-dalit agenda.
• To add insult to the injury, HRD Minister Smt. Smriti Irani reinstated the guilty Vice Chancellor, Shri Appa Rao as VC of HCU.
• Modi Government’s anti-student’s agenda was once again at full display at the Jawaharlal Nehru University and NIT Srinagar.
• Instead of finding and arresting those who were seen shouting so called ‘anti-national’ slogans, JNU students were arrested, slapped with sedition charges and the entire University was branded as a “notorious den of anti nationalists”, with a view to bring in to disrepute an important centre of learning, where ABVP has been unable to make an inroad.
• In this episode, the state came across as cracking down on helpless students while staying mum on the BJP MLA and lawyers of BJP’s Adhivakta Parishad, assaulting journalists, teachers, and students at the Patiala House Court, Delhi.
• HRD Minister Smt.Smriti Irani ordered all the Universities to prove their patriotism by hoisting the Tricolor. Perhaps, she is completely unaware about the basic fact that all Universities, including JNU, anyways hoist the National Flag. She is oblivious of the fact that BJP’s ‘Remote Control’ - the RSS did not hoist the National Flag for 52 years after Independence.
• Ironically, students of NIT, Srinagar (a Central University under HRD Ministry)were brutally beaten up by the police for hoisting and persecuted by University authorities for hoisting the National Flag within the premises of their institution.
• The hypocrisy of the self proclaimed defenders of Indian nationalism, the RSS, BJP and the Modi Sarkar, was exposed as they chose to maintain deafening silence against persecution of students in NIT, Srinagar and acted in concert with their own PDP-BJP Government.

Budgetary cuts in Education

The overall education budget is down from Rs 82,771 Cr to Rs 69,074 Cr in 2015-16. Whereas under the Congress Government, the Plan allocation went up by 18% in 2012-13 and by 8% in 2013-14, the BJP Government has reduced the Plan allocation for 2015-16 by 25%. All major schemes like Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan, Mid Day Meal Scheme, Rashtriya Uchchatar Shiksha Abhiyan have seen savage cuts in 2015-16.

2015-16

• About Rs.69,074 Crore was allocated for education in 2015-16, as against Rs.70,505 Crore in the revised estimate in 2014-15. The revised budget for 2014-15 had reduced the education allocation to Rs.70,505 Crore from the budget estimates of Rs.82,777 Crore.
• Allocations to school sector was cut by around 10 per cent in its planned outlay from Rs.43,517.9 Crore in the preceding year’s budget to Rs.39,038.5 Crore in 2015-16.

2016-17

• Total allocation to Human Resource Development Ministry this year (2016-17) is Rs. 72,394 Crore. Though this is higher by Rs. 3200 Crores from last year’s total budget estimates, the Modi government has significantly reduced plan allocation to school education and literacy over the last 2 years, showing clearly that NDA government is myopic and is neglecting India’s primary education sector.
• This is because the Modi Government believes in the ‘commodification’ of and ‘privatization’ of education. There are talks that the Central Government might offer education as a tradable service under the World Trade Organization's General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS).

• Fascist ideologies across the world have always followed a state policy of treating women as ‘child bearing machines ‘rather than individual human beings’. In India, we find a chilling reflection of similar sentiments in the ideology of Sangh Parivar and in the statements of leaders of BJP.
• BJP MP Sakshi Maharaj declared that ‘every Hindu woman should compulsorily have four children’. This sparked a bidding war of sorts. A BJP leader from Bengal, Shyamal Goswami, raised this number to five, whereas Praveen Togadia of VHP urged Hindu women to have “several children”. These ideas not only advocate unabashed racism and bigotry, but also denigrate women by treating them as child producing machines.

Gender Insensitive Budget

Gender budgeting shows how Government prioritizes gender concerns. The fact that the share of gender budgeting has remained stagnant at 4.5% of the total budget since last two years clearly indicates the lack of concern of the current Government towards women. It has actually come down from 5.5% (BE) and 5.8% (RE) of the total budget allocation in 2013-14. Total allocation for the Ministry of Women and Child Development in 2016-17 is 17,408 Crore, a mere 57 Crore increase from last years’ 17,351 Crore (RE)

Make in India remains merely a slogan

Contrary to the hype around FDI, Manufacturing FDI is actually down by nearly half in 17 key sub-segments (Manufacturing related) during the last 2 years

The Index of Industrial Production has also been on a low performance zone for more than a year now.

The future looks uncertain as well. NASSCOM has already said that hiring will reduce by 20% this year.

Following are the reasons why we believe that the Government has failed:-

• Inability to support domestic demand: Instead of finding ways to expand the tax payer base or raise money through disinvestment, the Government has gone ahead with increasing excise duties on petrol/diesel and new cesses on Service tax thereby pocketing money that could have stimulated local demand. This has particularly hurt demand in Urban India
• Poor Support to NREGA: In rural India, the Government slept through 2 droughts and woke up only late last year and began to support the NREGA program that PM had called ‘Monumental symbol of Congress’ failures’. The slow pace of NREGA spends meant that rural demand was squeezed out too.
• Floundering Commerce Strategy: While we struggle to grow jobs and lose export market share, the Commerce ministry has been struggling to put in place any FTAs that would protect the Industry. Further, little additional support has been provided to exporters to compete in the international markets

Skill India

• The seriousness of the ministry should be questioned. On being allocated Rs 1543 Crores in 2015-16, the ministry spent only 1037.6 Crores (Budget document). The department is yet to unveil either a vision or strategy that clarifies its role in supporting the Make in India program
• Higher Taxes: The Government’s contribution has been higher taxes for the urban Indian and ignoring the rural Indian leading to a demand squeeze for Indian industry.

Un-Smart solutions for ‘Smart Cities’!

• The smart city idea is not the NDA Government’s policy innovation, except for the touted number of 100, which in reality is only 20. The Delhi Mumbai Industrial Corridor (DMIC) had smart cities in its plans since 2011. Moreover, Shri Kamal Nath, the Urban Development minister in the Congress Government had already announced in 2012 that smart cities would be a feature of the proposed second phase of Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission (JNNURM) now renamed as Atal Mission for Rejuvenation and Urban Transformation.
• Prima facie it only seems to be a project for telecom and IT giants and luxury builders to invest money where profits are guaranteed by the public exchequer.

An inadequate financial allocation in relation to its promise:

A total of Rs 7,060 Crore was allocated to the smart cities in 2014-2015 year's budget and only 13% of the allocation (i.e. Rs.924 Crore) was spent. The general budget 2016-17 earmarked an amount of only Rs 3,205 Crore for the development of 100 smart cities across the country by 2020. One is forced to wonder whether this amount will be sufficient even to provide Toilets in 100 cities, leaving apart building 100 SMART Cities !

Digital India- A Reality Check!

What is Digital India? - The Digital India initiative seeks to lay emphasis on e-governance and transform India into a digitally empowered society.

Reality : Digital India is not all new. It is an amalgamation of three programmes of Congress Government-the ‘National Optical Fibre Network (NOFN)’, the ‘National Knowledge Network’ and the ‘e-Governance initiative’ (NeGP).

NeGP’ has been renamed as ‘e-Kranti’

In the year ending March 2016, the BJP Government laid optical fibre cable (OFC) in 42,500 Gram Panchayats (GPs) against the target of 1 lakh villages – not even half of the target.

The Optical Fibre Cable laid by the three state-owned companies till May 31, 2015 accounted for 20 per cent of their aggregate targets. RailTel, a PSU established for creating nationwide broadband, made the slowest progress – accounting for just about 8% of its target.