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Let me start with a confession up front. I am a patriotic Indian who believes in doing everything constitutionally possible to uphold the sovereignty of our beloved nation. However, if the political under-performance of a government is brushed under the carpet of nationalism, it is the rationalism of the citizens that should take the lead in making good sense of the happenings in the country. We need to focus on numbers as well from time to time instead of getting carried away by our feelings.
Highest unemployment rate ever!: The latest CMIE data reveals that 7.8% of India’s employable population who are willing and actively looking for employment are unemployed. This translates to approximately 3.5 Crore people who are estimated to be unemployed among a total estimated employable population of 45 Crore. All the flowery promises of crores of employment to be generated have fallen flat. Topping the charts with a whopping unemployment rate of 26.8% is Haryana, closely followed by Rajasthan at 26.4% (Congress cannot put the blame only on BJP on this matter!), followed by J&K (23.1%), Sikkim (20.7%), Bihar (17.6%) & Jharkhand (17.5%). Himachal Pradesh, Bihar, Tripura and Goa who all have double digit unemployment rates! The lowest is surprisingly Chattisgarh at only 0.8% unemployment rate along with Madhya Pradesh, Odisha, Puducherry, Uttarakhand, Gujarat, Karnataka, and Tamil Nadu who all have it under 3%. The after shocks of Demonetization is still felt in the manufacturing sector which employs maximum number of people in India.
High inflation: Oil prices have fallen by over 40% in the international markets, but still the Modi sarkaar is fleecing everyone by charging more than Rs. 100/- for petrol and over 90/- for diesel per litre. So much for the slogan “Bahut hui petrol diesel ki maar.. ab ki baar..” on which Modi became PM for the first time in 2014. This has a snowballing effect on the prices of essential commodities such as vegetables, cooking oil, atta, dal etc owing mainly to the escalated transportation costs. LPG too is soaring high at over 1100/- per domestic cylinder and over 2100/- for the commercial one. The fiscal blunders of the government are being paid off by the common man and woman of this country. The defendants of the government cite high inflation rates in developed nations, but the sad fact is that bulk of the inflation is owing to the high rates of taxes levied on fuel by the centre and the states.
GDP Growth Rate: India’s GDP growth fell into the negative zone in the FY 20-21 and since then we haven’t seen it grow at a real rate in excess of 8%. One may argue that it grew at 8.7% in 21-22 but it was just about recovering back to the previous year’s level with hardly any net positive growth. Covid cannot be blamed entirely for this disastrous performance because it was already below 5% for the previous two years and covid just happened to be the last straw on the proverbial camel’s back!
We should be happy that we are still receiving the GDP data because this No Data Available government has stopped publishing data on unemployment, farmer suicides and a host of other issues such as poverty! We recently slipped to 107th position in the World Hunger Index out of 121 countries!!
Press Freedom: Information flow to the public is the responsibility of the fourth pillar of democracy, the media. However, we are experiencing the fact that there is not enough transparency exhibited by the news fraternity especially when it comes to information that is uncomfortable to the incumbent government. Add to this the fact that so many media personnel have been booked under various draconian acts and we clearly understand why India has slipped to 161 out of 180 in the World Press Freedom Index. The recent year-long ban on the Media One Channel by the Ministry of Information & Broadcasting citing national security concerns had a ‘chilling effect’ on free press, observed the Supreme Court, lifting the ban. It further added,
“Criticism of government action cannot be called “anti-establishment” and a homogenised view on issues ranging from socio-economic polity to political ideologies poses “grave dangers to democracy” and held that national security claims can’t be “made out of thin air” to deny citizens remedies provided under the law.
The only silver lining is the mushrooming of various online portals that provide us with almost instant information regarding various happenings around us.
Protection to ‘special persons’: The long rope given to people close to this government is another stupefying aspect of the incumbent government, be it the case of the union minister from UP, whose son crushed protesting farmers under his vehicle or the WFI Chairperson accused of rape by women wrestlers against whom, even to file the FIR required the Supreme Court’s intervention, or the granting of paroles and furloughs to convicted criminals like Gurmeet and Asaram’s son Narayan Sai, especially when elections are near! Again, the honourable courts had to intervene to prevent this kind of largesse offered.
Aren’t these facts staggering? Don’t they make us think rationally and come to a conclusion regarding the current state of the country? Optimists might still point out that we have received the most funding through FDIs in the last 9 years, an astounding 40 Lakh Crore Rupees. But would they also care to look at the public debt of our country increasing from 55 lakh crore to a mammoth 160 lakh crore rupees in the same period of time? Where are we heading to?
Still we all fell for the election speech of Narendra Modi with our 40 brave martyrs’ photographs on stage. Such an act in our political culture is considered to be improper as we never in the past have used terror attacks or war for electoral gains. We got euphoric about the Balakot airstrikes, which was again an irrational move based on the raw wisdom of our Prime Minister! This kind of blind nationalism is not going to give us a bright future. The recent revelation by the ex. J & K Governor Mr. Satyapal Malik gives a clear indication of how blind nationalism is being abused by those in power to remain in power. We must start thinking right and thinking forward. Demonetization was a bad move, premature lock down could have been avoided, Balakot airstrikes might have yielded us precious nothing and we have to thank heavens that we didn’t incur any casualties with Abhinandan safely back home!
Let’s all be Rationalists first before we become Nationalists!
Chenthil Iyer is a financial planner by profession, a political commentator and the author of “Everyone Has an Eye on Your Wallet! Do You?”
These pieces are being published as they have been received – they have not been edited/fact-checked by ThePrint.
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