Outlook English - Print Subscribers Copy Outlook English, 11 June 2018 | Page 23
MANISH
TEWARI
WHAT A NASTY
TUMBLE-DOWN!
A crash like no other. Yet if you question, it amounts to nothing less than treason.
L
the government with any glory. The neighbourhood is bending
ET me be undiplomatic and, thus, candid: what a downhill
to the Chinese wind and India’s hegemony in the subcontinent
toboggan ride it has been for the country since May 26,
seems to be a thing of the past. Even the United States has
2014! The real GDP growth over the past four years, if you
hardened its position on trade and visa issues.
discount the statistical jugglery brought about by the
The track record of the government on internal security is
change of base year from 2004-05 to 2010-11, has aver-
hardly inspiring. Nothing characterises it better than the mis-
aged a derisory 5 per cent. The past three years have been
handling of the Jammu & Kashmir situation. The Election
the worst in terms of investments by Indian corporates into the
Commission’s inability to even hold a parliamentary byelection
economy. There has been a flight of capital with thousands of
in Anantnag now for over a year after postponing it indefinitely
high net worth individuals opting to become non-residents.
on May 12, 2017 is the most poignant admission of the inepti-
Agrarian distress is at an all-time high, with peasant moveme
tude of our security establishment. The bla-
nts and agitations sweeping across most sta
tant communalisation that worked behind the
tes. A Tughlaqi demonetisation, coupled with
brutal rape and murder of an eight-year-old
an irrational GST, has wiped out the informal
girl from a nomadic Gujjar-Muslim commu-
sector of the country’s economy.
nity has further undermined the amity in the
No worthwhile job creation has happened.
state. Perhaps sensitive to the reality that the
A government that promised eight crore new
Backerwals have been India’s first line of def
jobs in four years did not even create eight
ence, even an otherwise obdurate Gen V.K.
lakh new employment opportunities. The
Singh was constrained to tweet asking for
International Labour Organisation claims
justice for the little child. The ceasefire agree-
that only 823,000 jobs had been created in
ment between India and Pakistan that came in
India till October 2017; most of it classified
effect on November 26, 2003 (bringing relief
as vulnerable employment. An amount of
to thousands of innocent villagers along the
Rs 15 lakh that was promised to be deposited
LoC, IB and the AGPL) has virtually been a
in each person’s bank account in the first 100
Fuel price rise,
dead letter since September 2014.
days of the Modi government has become
farmers’ misery,
Social cohesion has undoubtedly been the
the sina qua non of the surreal commitments
single-biggest casualty during this govern-
made during the election campaign. When
killings over cow...
confronted, the BJP president tried to brush Social cohesion has ment’s tenure. A new language has been
invented, whereby critiquing the BJP is tan-
it off as just another jumla. Pakora economics
been the biggest
tamount to treason, criticising the govern-
has become the order of the day.
casualty during the ment is equivalent to sedition and questioning
All this notwithstanding, the government
Modi regime.
the establishment is downright blasphemous.
has enjoyed an unprecedented four years of
Prestigious institutions were labelled anti-
extremely low crude oil prices. Despite that,
national. The regime has clinically coined an oxymoron called
the Modi administration did not feel it appropriate to pass
‘love jihad’, engineered lynchings in the name of the cow pro-
the benefit onto the common consumers. Instead, it filled its
tection and a faith reconversion programme labelled ghar
coffers. Why was that money not invested in creating public
wapsi, besides killings of inconvenient and progressive jour-
goods is an inexplicable enigma.
nalists so as to constrict liberal spaces. All this to send a straight
Despite the prime minister’s incessant travels—Narendra
message to minorities and the liberal recalcitrant among the
Modi has made 36 foreign trips and visited 54 countries in four
majority that a de facto majoritarian state is in existence.
years—the country’s foreign policy is no better off. He unfortu-
Fawning corporate media, especially North Korean elements
nately disrupted the equilibrium deftly and dexterously
of the broadcast media, gleefully lent their full-throated sup-
maintained by his predecessors between the great and emerg-
port to implement this noxious agenda. Overall, how messy!
ing powers. As a consequence, you saw a warming of Russia to
Is this what India had voted for in 2014? O
Pakistan even at the height of the chest-thumping surgical
strikes. The sequential withdrawal from Doklam did not cover
(The writer is a Congress leader and former Union minister.)
11 June 2018 OUTLOOK 23