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THREE YEARS OF MODI GOVERNMENT
Prabhat Jha
India is now seventy years old since independence. It has seen many governments. The common man has had bitter-sweet experience with the central governments. There was a time when the opposition could not even think that it could be the ruling party. But the common man has supported the party to enable it to form government at both the centre and in the states. It is necessary to have patience and courage in adverse circumstances and discipline and politeness in favorable circumstances.
16 May and 26 May 2014 – these dates have been imprinted in the political memory of India. This is when Indian politics and the Government of India entered a golden period of stability. Time is no one’s friend. Good times vanish and bad times come. When we see the work of our Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the National President of the BJP Amit Shah in the last three years a thought comes to mind. It seems that Prime Minister Modi and the Modi Government is working for the welfare of the people inspired by the righteous path of Shri Rama. While the National President Amit Shah seems to be following Shri Krishna in expanding the base of the party, trying to achieve the goals of the party.
For years the BJP has been blamed as a party of the rich classes and forward castes. In the last three years, Modi government and the BJP has broken this myth and has taken the truth to every home that the Modi Government and the BJP is a party of the poor and it reaches out to everyone.
The Congress government gave the slogan of ‘Gareebi Hatao’, (remove poverty), but it could not be done. The BJP did neither give any slogan, nor did it make any promise. The first sentence of Prime Minister Modi after he bowed down at the entrance of the Parliament building was: this government is a government of the poor. And since then every step that the Prime Minister has taken is in this direction.
Indian society is experiencing for the first time that the government it elected is their own. You can say that the government is successful when the society says that the government is doing what they think it should do.
The country was suffering from corruption. The Parliament echoed with scandals. The life of the common man had been destroyed because of corruption. In the last three years, the Modi government has successfully tried to curb black money, corruption and unnamed property dealings. And everyone admires that! The historic decision of demonetization was taken to curb corruption. While Narendra Modi became absolutely successful in his demonetization, the poor lent their support to the government electorally and showed unequivocally that they are with the Modi government on demonetization. Such hard decision! Every poor person had some difficulty due to this decision and yet they were happy that at least someone did something to root out corruption.
The opposition asks: what did the government do? I want to say that the government has given direct benefit to more than 49 crore people. Not only has it opened bank accounts for them, it has also opened the gates of fortune for them. Here are a few facts:
27.97 crore Jan Dhan accounts were opened. The poor deposited 63.835 crore of their own in these accounts. Now the government is also depositing money in these accounts under different government schemes. 13 crore poor were included in various social welfare schemes. 6.6 crore people took loans and started business under start-up and stand-up schemes through ‘Mudra Yojana’. According to ‘Ujjwala Yojana’, 2 crore people, to the last man, were provided cooking gas connection. The ‘Ujjwala Yojana’ will not stop here. In the coming years, it will give gas connections to 5 crore more people.
The opposition asks: what did you do in the last three years? After father of the nation, Mahatma Gandhi, if someone has made ‘Swachh Bharat’ their mission, then it is the Narendra Modi government. Cleanliness takes the society to health and well-being. A clean India means a healthy India. It may not seem a big deal, but the Ujala LED Yojana, which works under the principle of save electricity, has distributed 11 crore 8 lakh LED bulbs so far.
The government has taken historic steps in decreasing the bank loan interests under the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana, making the dream of 5 crore homeless people come true. The Pradhan Mantri Kaushal Vikas Yojana, worth rupees 12 thousand crore, is trying to provide skills to crores of people.
The Modi government is doing a lot for the farmers. India is primarily an agricultural country. Our economy is agriculture based. If the farmer is not safe, then India is not safe. For the security of farmers, the Prime Minister doubled the crop insurance amount and the premium amount for farmers has been taken to just double of its earlier amount. So far around 3 crore 86 lakh farmers have secured themselves according to this scheme. Not only this, under the Pradhan Mantri Krishi Sinchai Yojana, more than 12.7 lakh hectares of land, has been irrigated. The slogan is ‘Har Khet ko Paani’ (Water to every field!). A brilliant scheme has been formulated for doubling the income of the farmers. ‘Achhe din Aayenge’ (Good times will come!) is not just a slogan. Good times are coming. On 31st March 2014, the rate of consumer inflation was 9.46 %. Within three years, on 31st March, it has come down to 3.81%. These figures are provided by the Indian State, not the BJP. On 31st March 2014, industrial production growth rate was in negative at -0.10 % which had increased to 5.2 % within three years by 31st March 2017.
Talking about roads, construction of 20 thousand kilometers of road is not a small achievement. Under the Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana, in 2016-17, around 48,000 kilometers of road was constructed and daily 133 kilometers of road is being constructed. In 2013-14 only 69 kilometers of road was being constructed daily.
Not only this, under DBT (Direct Bank Transfer), the poor and middle class, has been saved from exploitation. By the implementation of DBT in 19 ministries and 92 schemes of the departments of the Modi government, 49,560 crore rupees have been saved.
The structure of the State has been strengthened. By implementing the GST and by creating a forum for taking decisions by constituting the National Council for the GST, the structure of the State has been strengthened.
The Modi government dreams that every Indian should have his own home. More people have got their own homes under the three years of the Modi government than the 10 years of the UPA government. Permissions have been granted for creating 17,73,533 subsidized homes.
The government has taken many decisions for the empowerment of women. Among those who have benefitted under the Pradhan Mantri Mudra Yojana, round 79% are women. Under Sukanya Samriddhi Yojana, 1 crore accounts were opened and 11,000 crore rupees were deposited in them. ‘Beti Bachao – Beti Padhao’ scheme has been extremely successful. The Modi government has made the kitchen of the poor smokeless. Till now around 2 crore women of poor families are taking benefit of this scheme.
Development of youth is the primary concern of the Modi government. The youth are being given financial help under the start-ups scheme. Now the youth is not just demanding jobs, he is now creating jobs by doing business of his own. The process of recruitment in government jobs has become easy and transparent. For more than 34 lakh non-gazetted posts, interview has been non-compulsory. The novel scheme of Modi government, called ‘Make in India’ has been very successful. In the quality of products, India has pushed China back by seven spaces.
The Modi government is committed to the strengthening of the security forces. For the benefit of retired soldiers, the Modi government took historic steps and completed the demand of ‘One Rank, One Pension’ which was pending since four decades. The Modi government solved the long pending border dispute with Bangladesh. Under ‘Make in India’ scheme, India is becoming self-dependent in the field of defense. Indian Army destroyed the terrorists in their base inside the PoK. The surgical strike improved the image of India in the world. Before this they also ran operations against the terrorists in Myanmar.
Revolutionary changes have been made in the field of law and judiciary. More than 1100 laws that had gone obsolete and irrelevant were scrapped. 400 more are on their way of getting scrapped. Historic decision was made by giving constitutional status to National Commission for Backward Classes. Under Modi government, the Constitution, borders and the army have regained their lost status and importance. The image of India has improved in the world. The foreign trips of the Prime Minister have made the people of Indian origin happy and hopeful. Time and space does not allow to quote the decisions taken and facts provided by the cabinet.
The BJP is the largest political party in the world. The NDA has formed government in 17 states of India. More than 61% of population lives in these states. It means that the NDA government is serving more than 2/3rd of the people of the country. The states ruled by Congress constitute just 8.6% of Indian population. There are 283 Members of Parliament of the BJP. It has 56 MPs in the Rajya Sabha. The NDA has 339 Lok Sabha MPs and 74 Rajya Sabha MPs. The party which began with 10 people is now the largest political party in the world with more than 12 crore members. There are more than 1398 MLAs of the BJP in the country. The BJP has now the most number of MPs from SC and ST community; the most number of women MPs; the most number of mayors: the most number of Zila Panchayats and Councilors; the most number of Village Sarpanchs. In the coming days, the NDA is going to choose the President of the choice of the people of the country.
Our Prime Minister Narendra Modi is one of the most popular of global leaders. He has achieved great heights in becoming a global leader. A new history is being created where organization and power are coming together. In this favorable atmosphere the people are watching the BJP. The Congress era has come to an end. The era of the BJP has begun. Everyone’s responsibility in this era has also increased. The people have woken up to their duties, instead of just demanding their rights. Indian politics has taken many steps in the direction of regaining its lost glory. Before May 2014, corruption was not just a hot debate in public, but also in the Parliament. But in the last three years, the Modi government has not been blamed of any corruption. It shows that India is proceeding towards becoming a corruption-free country. The country belongs to the 125 crore people of this country. The BJP and the BJP government have got a great opportunity of serving the people of the country. Steps should constantly be taken in this direction to accomplish the goals undertaken.
(The writer is BJP National Vice-President
and a Member of Rajya Sabha)