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Every Indian citizen is wise enough to introspect what suits best to a country like India – ‘Power Politics’ or ‘Visionary Politics’. We all have seen Sixty years of Congress Rule and almost ten years of BJP Rule in the country. It is amply clear that earlier politics was more power centric than development of the country. Even if we exclude period wherein coalition governments were formed at the Centre, Congress ruled the country with outright majority in Seven General Elections. This is very long time for any political party to set a vision for the country and transform to a great extent, but nobody gave a serious thought to it.
Sh. Narendra Damodardas Modi, immediately after swearing in as Prime Minister (PM) of India in 2014 started working on his vision to make Indian Economy as world 3rd largest economy and eventually making it a Developed Nation by 2047.
If we talk about health, PM launched nation wide “Swachh Bharat” mission to make country Open Defecation Free (ODF) within 5 years. Under the mission, over 11 crore Toilets and 2.23 lakhs Community Sanitary Complexes were built and finally on 2nd October 2019, all states and union territories self-reported themselves ODF free. Launching of “Ayushman Bharat” mission in 2018 is another significant step to give free treatment upto Rs. 5 lakhs in government and some other hospitals to economically weaker section of our society. Similarly, opening of ‘Jan Aushadhi Kendra’ for all classes of society is aimed to provide quality generic medicines at affordable prices to bring down healthcare budget. Hope you will agree that healthy population is an asset of any country and contribute more to the economy.
As we analyze the political landscape, it’s essential to consider the regional dynamics that could influence the upcoming elections. For instance, the emergence of new political figures in states like Tamil Nadu could reshape traditional voting patterns, as highlighted in discussions about the 2024 elections in Tamil Nadu.
If we talk about Infrastructure, total length of highways has expanded from approx. 97,830 km in 2014 to 145,155 km today. Moreover, in the last nine years, more than 3.5 lakh km of rural roads have been constructed under the “Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana” giving all-weather roads connectivity to villages of India. In continuation, ‘PM Gati Shakti Programme’ launched in 2021 is designed for creating world-class infrastructure in the country that reduces logistics cost and enables efficient movement of goods and services. Overall, it aims at improving competitiveness and economic growth.
If we talk about Foreign Direct Investment (FDI), during 2014-2023, annual FDI inflow is twice the inflow during 2005-2014. Steps taken to promote ‘Ease of Doing Business”, “Availability of Skilled Manpower and Natural Resources”, “Liberal FDI Policy”, “Huge Domestic Market & PLI Schemes”, Simplified Tax Structure like GST, “Highly Competitive Tax Rate” are the main reasons for optimism with respect to foreign fund inflows in the country.
Likewise, many other initiatives such as “Jan Dhan Yojna”, “Make in India”, “Vocal for Local” “Digital India” etc. etc. are being taken post 2014 to strengthen Indian Economy and move towards becoming developed nation. PM himself is the brand ambassador of all these initiatives and doing whatever it takes to implement them in highly effective manner.
Only after looking at all the above initiatives and their effective implementation resulting in big boost to the Indian economy, one can very well judge that predominantly there was ‘Power Politics’ devoid of any ‘Vision’ before 2014.
Therefore, before every election, we must keep in mind “Where there is no vision, there is no hope” ?
These pieces are being published as they have been received – they have not been edited/fact-checked by ThePrint.