Modi,
HOW
MODI
FAILED
INDIA
A. GOPANNA
M o d i , a m i s t a ke
How Modi failed India
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
A. Gopanna is an author, journalist, full time Congress
activist and a staunch nationalist. He is currently
the Chairman of the Media Department, Tamil Nadu
Congress Committee.
In 2018, he wrote and published a book Jawaharlal
Nehru - An Illustrated Biography. The forewords for
this book were written by Former President Pranab
Mukherjee and Former Vice President Hamid Hasari.
The book fetched great reviews from eminent
personalities and print media.
In 2003, Gopanna authored and published a book
Kamaraj - An Era in Tamil. This publication was well
received and is currently in its 5th edition. His interest
in nationalism has spawned several other books in
the last three decades.
PUBLISHED BY
Surya Publications
Kamaraj Bhavan
573, Anna Road, Teynampet
Chennai - 600006
KEY CONTRIBUTORS
March 2019
Rajiv Netra
Price: Rs. 100
Babu Jayakumar
CONTENTS
Look Ahead...
4
Rafale Scam
6
Modi Made Disaster
14
Where are the jobs?
20
Blow to Farmers
26
Gabbar Singh Tax
30
The ‘Insecure’ Nation
36
Bank Loot Scam
44
Burning Pockets
48
Licence to Kill
52
Rising Intolerance
56
Choking CBI
62
Undermining Democracy
66
Atrocities against Dalits
70
Whither Lokpal
72
Money Down the Drain
74
Flagship Farces, All
78
UPA achievements - 2004 - 2014
80
LOOK AHEAD....
ord Yama was having a bad
day at the heavenly gates
as Chitragupta had taken
French leave. Bereft of
earthly records of the souls arriving
at his counter, he decided not to
send anyone to heaven and go by
their marital status to assign each
of them places in purgatory or hell.
So every man who answered ‘Yes’
to the question ‘Were you married?’
went straight to purgatory and
those who said ‘No’ went to hell
as ‘he had not experienced it in
earth.’ Reading the thoughts of
Yama, a smart man declared that
he was married twice, hoping that
might open the gates of heaven.
Hearing him Yama, lost his cool and
screamed: ‘Off to the eternal inferno
in hell. You can never be pardoned
for repeating the same mistake.’
Yes, voting for Narendra Modi
once is pardonable. But if the
same mistake is repeated even the
heavens cannot save us. Yet the
sceptical, discerning voter would
like to know why exactly he should
not vote the way he did in 2014. For
some may argue that half a decade
4
is a short period to really assess the
performance of an individual in the
business of running a country as big
as India. But the period since May
2014 threw up ample reasons to not
vote for Narendra Modi or the BJP
once again when there was nothing
much to write home about any
achievement. In fact, the country
saw the worst ever government
that showed an open contempt for
the people who elected it to power
and went out of its way to help the
extraordinarily rich become richer
and richer.
Not only that, crony capitalism,
corruption, financial irregularity,
undermining of established
institutions and fuelling of
communal feelings were so
common during the five years that
freedom, liberty and human rights
were trampled upon unabashedly.
Without going into the minute
details of various international
studies, reports and surveys
that showed India going down
the indices on happiness, press
freedom, personal liberties, ease of
doing business and so on, this book
seeks to just remind the discerning
voter of some major scams,
underlining the moments when the
nation was taken for a ride.
Piercing the fabric of the
quintessential Indian society
known for diversity in culture,
arts, lifestyle and food habits with
its communal agenda, the BJP
government destroyed plurality
and pushed sections of Indian
citizens to the edge. Its policies
and preferences gave a free run to
uncouth, unscrupulous elements,
who took it upon themselves the
duty of deciding what others should
do. Its respect for democratic norms
touched such a low that the Prime
Minister has still not addressed a
single media conference. All that
he does is to personally meet select
media persons and speak to them
‘off the record’ or answer preprepared questions sent to him in
advance.
Forget the media, how did the
Prime Minister treat the Parliament?
Or for that matter other institutions
like the Reserve Bank of India or
his own Cabinet. Did he not sign
a renewed deal with the French
company, Dassault Aviation, for
procuring fighter planes for the
Indian Air Force when the defence
minister was inaugurating a mobile
fish stall in Goa? Did we not see
wealthy bank loan defaulters flying
away to safe heavens in foreign
countries when poor farmers, unable
to put up with the torture of petty
bank officials, commit suicide? Has
not the gap between the haves and
have-nots yawned more and more
during the last five years?
How pathetic it was to watch
ordinary people dying in queues that
formed in front of banks and bank
ATMs when all of a sudden the Prime
Minister came on television to tell
them that their hard-earned cash
was worthless. Stories are aplenty.
But in this book we just discuss a
score of issues that will ensure that
the Indian voter does not err, once
again. Yes, even the Gods, in all their
divine munificence, will not forgive a
voter who repeats a mistake.
A. GOPANNA
Author
5
RAFALE SCAM
By meddling with Rafale deal to help his buddy Anil Ambani, Modi
undermined nation’s security and our public sector’s integrity
I want to speak to every single member of the Armed
Forces of this nation. This is about your future, you
defend us, you protect us, you fight for us, you die for
us and here it is absolutely clear that the Prime Minister
has stolen Rs. 30,000 crores of your money, by-passed
the process and given it to his friend Mr. Anil Ambani.
We have been saying that there should be a JPC, there
should be an enquiry.
6
Rahul Gandhi
Congress President
T
he Rafale deal is the mother
of all scams. Not only has
Prime Minister Narendra
Modi’s direct involvement been
established, the scam has caused
a slew of collateral damages: heavy
loss to exchequer, undermining of
a national institution like Hindustan
Aeronautical Limited, compromise
on national security, and unfair
favouritism to Anil Ambani enabling
him to make undue profits.
RAFALE IN NUMBERS
•Two days before Modi left
for France, the then Foreign
Secretary, S. Jayshankar, on
April 8, said, ‘We do not mix
up leadership-level visits with
deep details of ongoing defence
contracts. That is on a different
track.’ So, even the Indian
government was not aware of
Modi’s plan to sign a new deal.
36
640
1660
20
THE VISIBLE MODI HAND
•In the morning of April 10
2015, the day Modi signed
the agreement for 36 Rafale
fighter planes, the then French
President Francois Hollande
spoke to a newspaper about
the ongoing negotiations with
India for the sale of 126 Rafale
aircraft and had no inkling about
the announcement that Modi
would suddenly make the same
afternoon.
126
60
THOUSAND CRORE
THOUSAND CRORE
HAL
NONE
HAL
ANIL AMBANI
SECURED COMPROMISED
Anil Ambani flies sortie in
Rafale Fighter Jet at Aero
India 2017
•The then Defence Minister,
Manohar Parrikar, who was in
Goa inaugurating a mobile fish
stall when Modi signed the deal
in France, later made it clear that
7
Dassault Reliance factory site
Why did
the Prime
Minister go
for the Rafale
deal without
taking
others into
confidence?
8
the decision on the new Rafale
agreement was that of the Prime
Minister’s alone and that even
he came to know of it from the
National Security Adviser. Parrikar
had reiterated his statement
subsequently.
cost went up to about Rs 1,660 crore
with the addition being avionics and
radar equipment. Now even if you
add those, does the cost increase by
3x?.
126 TO 36 AIRCRAFTS
•This clearly establishes that the
deal was unilaterally decided
by Modi completely rendering
previously negotiated deal for 126
aircraft and authority of Defence
Acquisition Council irrelevant.
Modi claims the cost per aircraft is
cheaper than the one negotiated
by UPA. If that is the case, then why
did Modi settle for only 36 aircraft
considering the dire need to add
more aircraft to the fleet?
40,000 CR LOSS TO
EXCHEQUER
HAL, THE LOSER
When the negotiations for 126
aircraft was on, the cost of one
fighter was quoted between Rs 650
and 750 crore but after Modi signed
the agreement for 36 aircraft the
In March 2014, Dassault Aviation,
the makers of Rafale, signed
a work-share agreement with
Hindustan Aeronautics Limited
(HAL) under which 70 per cent of
the manufacturing would be done
at HAL. HAL has a long association
with Dassault and would have been
the natural choice for offset partner.
But now it has lost out to a new
private company that has absolutely
zero experience in making anything,
leave alone a fighter aircraft.
RELIANCE, THE WINNER
Three days after Dassault’s CEO
spoke glowingly of HAL in the
presence of Indian Ambassador
to France, Anil Dhirubhai Ambani
Group formed Reliance Defence
Limited.
The Indian government had
suggested the name of Reliance
Defence Limited to be the
offset partner of Dassault in the
manufacturing of 36 Rafale aircraft.
This was unequivocally spelt out
by Francois Hollande, who was the
French President in 2015. He said in
September 2018 that Dassault did
not have any other choice but to
accept the name of Reliance Defence
Limited to conclude the deal.
Reliance Defence Limited was
awarded the contract worth Rs
30,000 crore, depriving HAL of
the business, though it had no
experience in manufacturing
aircraft. The loser had 40 years of
experience in the business and the
winner was just 12-days old. This is
crony capitalism at its best. Reliance
was also awarded an additional
life-cycle cost contract of Rs 1,00,000
crore. Thus it had pocketed a
contract for Rs 1,30,000 crore, thanks
to Modi.
NO TRANSFER OF
TECHNOLOGY
UPA proposal had Transfer of
Technology when HAL was to
assemble 108 aircraft. In the NDA
deal there is simply no transfer of
technology robbing the country
of valuable technology knowhow. The present government,
which boasted Make in India,
has snatched away a stateowned defence-manufacturing
company’s chance at perhaps the
biggest manufacturing deal in its
history, to replace it with an order
that eventually favours a private
corporation.
Why
was Anil
Ambani’s
fledgling
company
chosen
over HAL?
Chairman and CEO of Dassault Aviation Eric Trappier (left), French Defence
Minister Florence Parly (right) and Chairman of Reliance Group Anil Ambani in
Nagpur on October 27, 2017, where they participated in the foundation stone
laying ceremony of Dassault Reliance Aerospace Limited
9
Why was
Air Force’s
requirement of
126 fighter aircraft
not taken into
consideration?
NATIONAL SECURITY IN JEOPARDY
When the IAF had a clear need to increase the squadron, procuring
just 36 aircraft has dealt a body blow to the fighting capabilities of
our air force.
The government has claimed that it struck a deal for buying the
fighters off the shelf – at the cost of sacrificing the Make in India
concept – so as to get quicker delivery of the aircraft and secure the
country’s defence. However, the 36 Rafale jets are to be delivered
within 67 months of the signing that took place in October 2016. The
first of these jets will not arrive before October 2019. How is this an
emergency purchase as proclaimed by Modi?
UPA’S PRIMARY MOTIVE WAS TECHNOLOGY
TRANSFER
Is not the Rafale
deal a case of
crony capitalism,
the hallmark of
Modi regime?
Why did the cost
of Rafale aircraft
shoot about three
times in the deal
struck by Modi?
10
The sustained campaign to undermine HAL could only lead to the
disestablishment of the prestigious defence public sector unit. Not
only was HAL taking care of most of the requirements of IAF, it was
around which India’s future indigenous defence industry would have
been built. How long can the country afford to depend on foreign
companies for defence supplies?
SUPREME COURT VERDICT IS NO CLEAN CHIT
FOR MODI
The Supreme Court verdict on December 14, 2018 refers to a CAG
report, ratified by Public Accounts Committee. It was a fraud played
by the Modi government. The fact is CAG report was tabled in
Parliament on February 12, 2019. The court mentioned that Air Force
officials were examined by the court on the acquisition process and
pricing. This is also factually incorrect as the only questions they were
asked were regarding the generation of the Rafale aircraft and when
the last acquisition took place. The court also ignored pricing and
major deviations in defence procurement procedure.
WHY THE DEMAND FOR JPC
Right from the beginning, the Congress Party has been demanding
a probe by the Joint Parliamentary Committee, maintaining that
the SC is not the right forum to decide on a matter like this involving
national security. Only a JPC will have the scope to dwell deep and
come out with all the facts relating to a scam of this magnitude,
involving the Prime Minister.
THE HINDU EXPOSÉ
ANTI CORRUPTION CLAUSES REMOVED
Key conditions for anti-corruption penalties and
an escrow account for payments were dropped
days before the Rafale deal was signed, The Hindu
had reported, describing them as major and
unprecedented concessions from a government that
has repeatedly stressed on fighting corruption in
defence deals.
MISCONDUCT BY PMO - PARALLEL
NEGOTIATIONS
Defence Ministry raised strong objections to
“parallel discussions” conducted by PMO during the
negotiations over the Rs 59,000 crore Rafale deal
between India and France.
•Why did the PMO conduct parallel negotiations? Did
the PMO try to protect special interests?
•Parallel negotiation weakened India’s position and
bolstered French’s position. The result - final deal price
struck by NDA was more expensive than the UPA deal
by Rs. 1933 crore (246 mn euros).
ACTIVELY MISLED THE SUPREME COURT
Government not only failed to make full disclosure but
also suppressed information regarding the role of the
PMO in this case and objections raised by Defence
Ministry. As the level of the objection was serious, it
should have been reported to the Supreme Court.
11
CAG REPORT
LEAVES QUESTIONS
UNANSWERED
Unresolved Anil Ambani Connection - CAG report
ignores the Anil Ambani connection since it does
not deal with the offset contract aspect of the deal
Unanswered Pricing Question - CAG report only
mentioned about the differences in pricing in
percentage terms. Without actual numbers, one
can’t really validate
Overlooked Dissenters’ Concerns - Three experts
from the Indian Negotiating Team raised objections
regarding the high price and slow delivery.
According to the team, actual deal is 55% more
expensive than what it would have been had the
2007 price been adjusted. The CAG failed to delve
into the objections raised
CAG Calls out Government’s Subterfuge - CAG’s
own report politely called out the government’s
subterfuge on the procedures followed
No Comment on Dropping of Key Clauses - No
comment on anti-corruption clauses, which
were removed at the very last minute. Silence
on dropping the requirement for a sovereign
guarantee or a bank guarantee, including routing
payments through an escrow account
12
THE VIOLATIONS
Defence Procurement Procedure
was not observed
Mandatory approval of Cabinet on
Security was not obtained
By letting PMO hold parallel
negotiations with the French side,
he undermined the role of the
official negotiating team
I deeply regret to say that the
CAG has meekly submitted to
the unpreedented demand of
the government and presented
a Report that contains no
useful information or analysis
or conclusions. The CAG has
failed the people of the country.
I think I was not wrong when I
said yesterday that the Report
may not be worth the paper on
which it is printed.
P Chidambaram
Former Finance Minister
Why would the NDA-BJP Government waive
the anti-corruption clauses in the Rafale deal?
The answer is very simple - because there has
been corruption in the Rafale deal. That is our
direct charge - the charge of Indian National
Congress - that there has been corruption in
the Rafale Fighter deal.
A sovereign guarantee and escrow account
is thrown by the wayside. It is replaced by
a Comfort Letter. Now which Government
would not want to secure the advances that
it has paid?
Manish Tewari
AICC Spokesperson
13
MODI MADE DISASTER
It was like shooting at the tyres of a fast moving vehicle... Modi stopped the
Indian economy and made people suffer
What the PM has done is the biggest impromptu financial
experiment in the world. He did not ask anyone. The finance
minister did not know. The chief economic adviser did not
know. This decision is not that of the finance minister. This
is the Prime Minister’s decision
Rahul Gandhi
Congress President
14
O
n 8 November 2016,
Modi unleashed the illplanned and ill-thought
out demonetization among the
unsuspecting populace of the country.
It was a devastating stroke that
caused death of over 140 people and
plunged the GDP from 8.01% in 2015 16 to 6.5% in 2017 - 18.
GROWTH DECELERATES
As per CSO estimates, GDP
growth rate was seen at a
four-year low of 6.5% in 2017-18
GDP
(%)
GVA
DEMONETISATION
ANNOUNCEMENT
It was on November 8, 2016, at 8.00
p.m. the Prime Minister of India
made a sudden announcement of
scrapping Rs.500/- and Rs.1000/currency denominations from their
legal tender and circulation. These
currency notes accounted for 86% of
the total value of the legal currency in
circulation in India. Overnight, the 86%
currency notes became mere papers
in the hands of the public, bereft of
their legal tender. This left millions of
people with no money to resort to.
DEVASTATING IMPACTS OF
DEMONETISATION
ATM deaths - Over 140 people died
waiting in long queues at the ATM
GDP - The GDP growth rate of 8.01% in
2015-2016 fell to 7.11% in 2016-2017 after
demonetisation. Indian economy lost
1.5 per cent of GDP in terms of growth.
That alone was a loss of Rs 2.25 lakh
crore a year.
Job loss - According to CMIE’s
Consumer Pyramids Household
Surveys (CPHS), approximately 3.5
million jobs were lost during the final
quarter of the financial year 2016-17.
15
Indian economy
lost 1.5 per cent
of GDP in terms
of growth. That
alone was a loss
of Rs 2.25 lakh
crore a year
16
Small Businesses - Demonetisation
gravely impacted their revenue
collection and threatened their
existence. Many small shops had
to close down their business.
In the first four months after
demonetisation, business was
down by as much as 50% for small
traders. It took about six months
for the situation, currency flow and
business to normalize.
Cash Shortage - Acute cash
shortage led to chaos in various
parts of the country. ATMs ran out
of cash and many ATMs were nonfunctional. Violence broke out in
some parts of the country including
New Delhi. Many ATMs were short of
cash until April 2017 – 5 months after
the start of demonetisation.
Agriculture - The farmers, especially
small and marginal who largely
depend on cash to buy seeds,
fertilizers and to pay for sowing,
borrowing water for irrigation
and for other related agriculture
equipments, remained worst
affected and could not complete the
crop related activity.
Huge Printing Cost: Incurred huge
cost of Rs. 12877 crore in printing the
new currency. Further managing
the lakhs of crores of old currency
volume has also incurred a big
expense.
Easy hoarding: Rs.2000 currency
note will be much easier to hide and
can be used to store black money in
shorter space.
Black money turned to white:
Of the Rs. 15.41 lakh crore worth
Rs. 500 and Rs. 1,000 notes in
circulation on November 8,
2016, when the note ban was
announced, notes worth Rs. 15.31
lakh crore have been returned.
Demonetisation is a statesponsored once-in-a-life time
opportunity given to crooks to
convert their black money into
white and get away with lighter
penalties. Many wrongdoers, in
collaboration with corrupt bank
officials, distributed their gains
over many bank accounts to hide
their money. If stamping out black
money was the intention of the
move, not even 0.01% of that has
been extinguished
Fake currencies - The forgers,
though initially surprised were,
eventually able to forge the new
notes too.
Cross-border terrorism in J&K
has, in fact, gone up between
November 1, 2016 and October
31, 2017. There were 341 terror
incidents during this period
compared with 311 a year ago in
the same time span, MoS for Home
Affairs Hansraj Ahir told the Lok
Sabha on December 19, 2017.
Over 140
lives were
lost due to
demonetisation
disaster
17
IMPACT ON COMMON MAN
Thousands of SME
units were shut
down. Lakhs of jobs
were destroyed.
Poor people lost
their lifetime
savings and their
families went
without food
15 crore daily
wage earners
lost their
livelihood for
several weeks
•People in the lower rungs of the
socio-economic ladder lost their
lifetime savings
•Poor traders went without business
and so their families without food
•The middle-class queued up before
banks and 140 people died trying
to lay their hands on their hardwon money
•The rich faced no problem because
banks did not let them down (a
CBI raid at the premises of Sekar
Reddy, a businessman in Chennai,
even as people lined up before
bank branches, yielded 33.6 crores
of newly mint currency notes of
Rs 2000 denomination but the
Reserve Bank of India did not know
the bank that supplied the notes)
•People who were travelling were
caught unawares and had to go
without food and basic necessities
though they had money with them
•Mothers could not buy milk for
children and office-goers had no
Did the rich and the
corrupt stand in
queue? No. They just
lapped up the gift
wrapped opportunity
to convert all their
black money in to
white money
18
cash for basic expenses like
transport and food
•Men and women took leave
from office and stood in front of
empty EVMs waiting for them
to be replenished with new
currency notes and most of the
time returned home emptyhanded
•Families who took sick relatives
in hospitals were turned away
as the currency they had was
useless
•Women in abusive homes
who scrimped and hid money
were caught on the horns of a
dilemma: to let their savings go
a waste or get exposed to the
husbands of their secret savings
•Families of migrant workers lost
the fruits of the hard work of
their sons and daughters toiling
in alien soil
•Senior citizens subsisting on
meagre cash struggled to meet
daily needs
WHITE LIES OF BJP
•BJP president Rajnath Singh said on 17 April
2014 that if his party came to power at the
Centre, it would bring back black money
stashed in foreign banks within a period of 100
days.
•In 2014, Mr Modi, while campaigning for the Lok
Sabha election, promised to bring back black
money from abroad to India and deposit Rs. 15
lakh from it to every citizen’s bank account.
I was stunned to hear the noteban announcement. I don’t
know who had advised Prime
Minister Modi to inflict such
a reckless step on the nation.
It was a ‘Black Day’ for India’s
economy
and
democracy.
What is even more tragic is
that none of the lessons from
this monumental blunder have
been learnt by the government.
Black money and tax evasion are
a menace but demonetisation
was not the solution
Dr Manmohan Singh
Former Prime Minister
Rs. 16,000 crore out of demonetised notes of Rs. 15,44,000
crore did not come back to RBI.
That is 1%. Shame on RBI which
‘recommended’
demonetisation. RBI ‘gained’ Rs. 16,000
crore, but ‘lost’ Rs. 21,000 in
priniting new notes! The economists deserve Nobel Prize
P. Chidambaram
Former Finance Minister
19
WHERE ARE THE JOBS?
Unemployment touched a record high in the regime of Modi,
whose election promise for jobs is just a mirage
In a country of over 1.2 billion people, India is creating about
450 jobs per 24 hours while China is creating 50,000 jobs
in the same 24 hours. Our prime minister doesn’t seem to
think this is a problem. We need to first acknowledge that
there is a problem, and then we need to galvanise support
to fight it. That is what we (Congress) believe in.
Rahul Gandhi
Congress President
20
W
hen Prime Minister Modi
came to power in 2014, he
came with a promise that
with a boost given to the economy,
employment prospects for youth
will increase phenomenally. What
is the situation today? People,
especially youth, are still looking for
jobs that are nowhere in sight. They
are in poor circumstances and are
losing hopes of a bright future.
UNEMPLOYMENT IS AT A
RECORD 45-YEAR HIGH
Official reports giving statistics
showing shrinkage in the
employment market are not
published and propagated by
the Government, leading to the
suspicion that actuality - and so the
truth - are suppressed.
* In 2017-2018, the country’s
unemployment situation
worsened
* Unemploymentrate stood at 6.1 per
cent
* Joblessness was 7.8 per cent in
urban area and 5.3 per cent in rural
areas
WHAT’S THE DATA
7-10 million jobs
created in 2017-18
- Employees
Provident Fund
Organisation (EPFO)
11 million jobs lost in
2017-18 - Centre for
Monitoring Indian
Economy (CMIE)
18.7% jobless urban
males aged 15-29 in
2017-18 - National
Sample Survey Office
(NSSO), Ministry of
statistics
27.2% jobless
urban females
aged 15-29 in
2017-18
3.5 million jobs lost in
manufacturing sector since
2016 - All India Manufacturers
Organisation
LABOUR MINISTRY
Labour Force Participation
Rate (LFPR)*
NATIONAL SAMPLE
SURVEY OFFICE (NSSO)
* The unemployment rate of 6.1 per
cent in 2017-18 is the highest in 45
years.
These figures appear in a report
submitted by The National Sample
Survey Office (NSSO), Ministry of
Staistics.
The heads of this organisation are
sad that the statistics have not
been put out by the Government
CENTRE FOR
MONITORING INDIAN
ECONOMY (CMIE)
21
More than
50% of
India's
working-age
population
out of labour
force: NSSO
The youth of
the country feel
betrayed. Their
hopes dashed
as the Modi
government
has not even
created a roadmap for job
creation
22
in the public domain. Their report
that exposes the unhappy situation
in the job market has not been
published.
Prime Minister Modi in his 2014 Lok
Sabha election campaign promised
20 million jobs every year but this
level was never achieved.
People wonder whether there is a
deliberate attempt to hide facts.
According to the NSSO, the
joblessness rate among youth was
at higher level compared to the
previous years and much higher
compared to that in the overall
population.
The report is significant as it was the
first big and all-embracing survey of
the unemployment situation in the
country after the November 2016
demonetisation.
According to Pronab Sen,
former chief statistician of India,
unemployment has been rising
since 2012.
Unemployment rate rose to 5.0 in
2015-16 from the previous figures of
4.9 and 4.0.
The rate of joblessness among
young rural males and females was
higher in 2017-18. Among the urban
males it was higher compared to
rural youth and the unemployment
rate among the educated also went
up. .
According to NSSO half of working
age population (15 years and above)
is not contributing to any economic
activity.
Demonetisation and GST have had
terrible effect on jobs.
Through January to December
2018, India lost 11 million jobs. Modi
had said in 2013 that 20 million jobs
would be added every year, but that
never happened.
The numbers do not look good. The
Modi Government has introduced
new data-gathering methodology
after discarding EmploymentUnemployment Survey. As a result
there is a data gap on job creation.
DEATH OF NATIONAL
STATISTICAL
COMMISSION
Modi in an attempt to cover up the
grim state of the job sector post
demonetisation has withheld the
National Statistical Commission
from publishing its report. This
has forced the NSC Chairman and
only remaining external member
to resign citing governments
meddling over jobs data and being
excluded from new GDP series. The
leaked report, however, confirms
the dire state of the Indian economy
under Modi government.
Why Modi
did not put
the same
effort he
has put into
fudging job
data into
solving the
job crisis?
The reasons behind employment
loss are the lack of new projects
and the attempt to build cashless
economy.
In Indian economy, employment
elasticity, that is, the ability to
produce employment by every one
per cent increase in investments has
been declining over the years. This
is another reason for the drop in the
employment rate.
Labour-intensive sector reforms
are needed. Technology-intensive
reforms will not bring more and
more jobs. Preferential privatisation
will benefit only a few.
•Half of India’s working-age
population (15 years and
above), for the first time, is not
contributing to any economic
activity, according to the National
Sample Survey Office’s (NSSO’s)
latest jobs survey.
23
PH.D’S FOR PEON
May 2017: For 6000 Group D
jobs in West Bengal, 25 lakh
appeared for exam, which is
400 applicants for each job
Jan 2018: For 18 vacancies
for peons in Rajasthan, 12,453
people applied. Applicants
include 129 engineers, 23
lawyers, a charted accountant
and 393 post gradates
March 2018: For 90,000
railway jobs 2.8 crore people
applied. They were vying for
jobs as drivers, gangmen,
switchmen, trackmen,
cabinmen, helpers and
porters
April 2018: For 1,137 constable
posts in Mumbai, 167 MBAs,
423 engineers, 543 post
graduates, 3 lawyers and 167
BBAs applied
June 2018: Those waiting
for their turn for jobs offered
through employment
exchanges throughtout India
was 4.27 crore
24
Unemployment rate
stood at a 45-year high
of 61% during 2017-2018
JOB CRISIS IS NOT DATA
CRISIS
“I don’t blame our opponents for
blaming us on the issue of jobs,
after all no one has an accurate
data on jobs. Our traditional matrix
of measuring jobs is simply not
good enough to measure new jobs
in the new economy of New India,”
Modi said.
An examination of multiple
datasets reaffirm the acuteness
of India’s jobs crisis. Modi should
stop citing the lack of reliable
and timely data as an excuse for
having a meaningful debate on job
creation.
After having failed to register
any meaningful growth in last
54 months advising people to
sell pakoda or startup India is no
more than a cruel joke.The BJP’s
attempt to steer the conversation
away from cold statistics to
political rhetoric around pakodas
is understandable given that the
numbers do not look good.
Modi promised
2 crore jobs
every year. He
should have
created
10 crore jobs
in 5 years. In
reality, not even
10 lakh jobs
were generated
A misleading story of
job creation
How did the ‘Towards a Payroll
Reporting in India’ report
arrive at the 55 lakh new jobs
number? It used data from the
Employees’ Provident Fund
Organisation (EPFO) which
registers employees from the
formal sector for provident
fund benefits. It found that
as of November 2017, there
were 36.8 lakh new members
in the age group of 18-25
years who registered with the
EPFO vis-à-vis the previous
year. It assumed that any
18- to 25-year-old registering
with the EPFO implies that
he or she found a new job in
the organised sector. It then
extrapolated this November
2017 data to the full year of FY2018 and boldly claimed that
55.2 lakh new jobs were created
in FY-2018.
It doesn’t take much to realise
the flaws in this analysis:
New 18- to 25-year-old EPFO
members do not automatically
mean net new jobs in the
economy; an informal job that
turns formal with an EPFO
registration does not mean
it is a new job; cherry-picking
an EPFO data point and postdemonetisation/Goods and
Services Tax (GST) time frames
lead to these grossly misleading
conclusions.
It is well-known that when an
employee loses her job or stops
working, her membership
from the EPFO database is not
removed automatically. So,
the EPFO data set may reflect
new additions accurately but
not deletions, i.e. job losses.
When we talk of new jobs in the
economy, we usually mean net
new jobs, not gross jobs. So, it is
somewhat misleading to claim
that the economy has “created
55 lakh new jobs” when we do
not know how many lost their
existing jobs.
Jairam Ramesh
Former Union Minister
25
BLOW TO FARMERS
Modi would not waive farm loans though bad loans of crony capitalists to the
tune of Rs. 2.41 crore were written off by banks
If Narendra Modi can waive off a loan of 3.50 lakh crore
outstanding loan of 15 rich people, then he should also
waive off the loan of farmers in all states of the country.
“We will not let the Prime Minister sleep till he
announces a loan waiver”.
26
Rahul Gandhi
Congress President
T
he Indian farmer suffered the
most under the Narendra
Modi government. Though
Modi had promised of doubling
farm income by 2022, it remains
a mirage as farmers, in the past
five years, suffered more. Apart
from demonetisation that had an
impact on poor farmers, the sector
has been woefully neglected in the
past few years with the government
more keen on facilitating topnotch industrialists get multi-crore
contracts like it did to Anil Ambani
in the Rafale deal
5 YEARS OF NEGLECT
•Agricultural growth was sluggish
at 1.9 per cent in Modi rule even
after the GDP figures were
reconfigured by the government
to show a growth rate of 7.2 per
cent. The 1.9 per cent growth rate
was half of what it was during the
previous UPA government
WHY FARM LOANS SHOULD BE
WAIVED
• To ease farmers’ pain, loan waiver can be a balm. But
Modi government is admantly refusing to help the
farmers in distress, ignoring growing incidents of suicides.
• The total outstanding institutional crop and term loans as on 31
March 2018 were Rs. 11,63 lakh crore, which is only about 1.5% of the
GDP.
• Of the total loan outstanding, crop loan amounts to Rs. 3.76 lakh
crore only. If crop loans up to Rs 2 lakh are waived, it would add up
only to Rs. 1.90 lakh crore.
• Recently elected Congress governments waived loans to the tune of
Rs. 18,000 crore in Rajasthan, Rs. 38,000 crore in Madhya Pradesh,
Rs. 6000 crore in Chattisgarh and Rs. 34,000 crore in Karnataka, as
promised by Rahul Gandhi during polls.
• When Modi made public sector banks write off bad loans worth
Rs. 2.41 crore between 2014 and 2017, why not farmers’ loans. Will he
favour only crony capitalists?
•Farmers’ suicides went up so
much during Modi rule, the
government stopped printing
the suicide figures from February
2017
•The government’s Minimum
Support Price (MSP) did not
match the promised MSP of 150
per cent of the cost of cultivation.
Also government made no efforts
to increase procurement of the
produce
•Since 2015, less than 10 per cent
of the farmers have been able
to sell their produce at the MSP
announced by the government
27
Under UPA,
agriculture
witnessed
its highest
ever growth
phase of 4%,
compared to
the low 1.9%
growth in the
four years of
Modi rule
28
•The government should have
invested Rs 6.4 lakh crore
to achieve its goals for the
farm sector, according to the
recommendation of the Ashok
Dalwai Committee but it allocated
only Rs 2.12 lakh crore in the last
five years
•The BJP reneged on
implementing its promise in
the manifesto for 2014 elections
that it would evolve a National
Agricultural Market to give
farmers the best price for their
products even while protecting
consumers from high prices.
The scheme launched in April
2016 has been a non-starter,
thanks to lack of funds and the
implementation of GST
COST + 50% = JUMLA
Modi promised to Cost + 50%
profit to the farmers in their 2014
election manifesto. The stark reality
is that Modi Government has
betrayed the farmers in the last five
years. The farmers are struggling
to cover the cost of cultivation
leave aside make any income or
profits. Raising the MSP to at least
1.5 times of the comprehensive
cost of cultivation was one of the
recommendations of the National
Commission for Farmers led by MS
Swaminathan. On an average there
is a 25% shortfall between MSP
recommended by the Commission
and one declared by the BJP Govt.
GST ON AGRICULTURE
Low Investment = Farmers’ woes
Modi government has earned the
dubious distinction of being the first
government ever to tax agriculture.
Modi government has imposed 5%
GST on fertilizers, 12% GST on tractor/
agricultural implements, 18% GST
on pesticides, 18% GST on tyre, tube,
transmission parts and 18% GST on
cold storage equipment.
FAILING CROP
INSURANCE SCHEME
Reply to an RTI query reveals
that PM’s crop insurance scheme
ended up being a goldmine for ten
private insurance companies in
just two years, with the difference
between premiums received and
compensation paid at nearly Rs
16,000 crore in just two years. Crop
insurers enjoy huge profits while the
farmers toil on the fields. Farmers
have also realised it’s a long wait for
claiming money under the scheme
with reimbursements going up to 18
months.
NO FARM LOAN WAIVER
FOR POOR FARMERS
Govt has written off Rs 2.4 lakh crore
bad loans of corporates in three
years. However, it is not considering
waiving off the loans of small and
marginal farmers to get rid of their
debts.
Investment related to GDP
Souce : Pocket book of Agrucultural
statistics 2017
INVESTMENT IS ABYSMALLY
LOW AND FALLING
Agriculture is the key to India’s
economic growth. Though it
contributes just 15 per cent of the
GDP, it supports 70 per cent of
the country’s population, besides
providing the foundation for other
sectors. For the industrial sector
to grow, agricultural sector has to
grow. Public + Private investment
should grow.
WHY NO EXPORTS?
With no clear policy on export of
agricultural products, the Indian
farm industry has failed to evolve
a proper export market. The
unpredictability of import and
export restrictions has come in
the way of linking Indian products
to the global markets. If the Modi
government had brought about a
proper trade policy and removed
restrictions on export, farm industry
might have looked up.
Modi government has done next
to nothing. Agrarian distress
has gone up; farmers have
committed suicide; agricultural
income has declined; and
market prices in almost every
commodity are lower than the
MSP, causing losses to farmer.
Yashwant Sinha
Former Finance Minister
29
GABBAR SINGH TAX
Modi opposed GST as CM of Gujarat but ruthlessly implemented it as PM,
unmindful of lakhs of workers losing their jobs
As soon as we come to power, we will change
the ‘Gabbar Singh Tax’ into the real tax. We will
implement one tax at lowest rates. All power would
be used to generate employment.
Rahul Gandhi
Congress President
30
T
he implementation of the Goods
and Services Tax (GST) by the
Narendra Modi government at
the stroke of midnight on July 1, 2017,
was seen as a daylight robbery by many
small businessmen in the country. But,
as it is his wont, Modi went on berating
about it, saying, ‘the world is in awe
seeing how we implemented the new
tax system in such a short time.’ The
fault, to be precise, is not with the
tax system but with the way it was
tweaked to help big business houses
MODI AND GST
•‘‘It is Gujarat Sabotage Tax’. This
was what Modi said of the GST in
2011 when the UPA government
introduced it in Parliament. What he
vehemently opposed for many years
as Chief Minister of Gujarat became
an ideal tax scheme after he became
Prime Minister
•GST was typical of any other Modi
initiative: Hurriedly and clumsily
rolled out after a grandiose theatrical
announcement. It was done without
preparing the nation and the I-T
department for the task and sending
panic waves among the business
class that was not ready for the
change in taxation.
Collections have failed to achieve an average of more
than Rs 1 lakh crore consistently as assessees have
managed to find ways around the GST by dealing in cash.
Comparison of Gross GST Revenue
(Average 2017-18 & April’18 to Dec’18)
(Figures in Rs. crore)
105000
103459
1,00,710
100000
94016
95000
90000
95,610
97,637
96,483
93,960
94,726
94,442
89885
85000
80000
Average
(2017-18)
Apr-18
May’18
June’18
July’18
August’18
Spet’18
Oct’18
Nov’18
Dec’18
Source: PIB, Government of India, Ministry of Finance
•When it was introduced in July
2017, Modi came up with five
different rates of tax under GST.
Soon he started giving in to
demand by various lobbies that 365
amendments were made to GST in
the first 10 months itself, pointing to
the fact there was no application of
mind when it was brought in.
31
GST
d
to s an ll
d
le nd y bi
u
em ref -wa
t
,
s
sy ling he e
T
I
fi f t
ed urn n o
k
ba ret atio
f
l
in nt
e
Ha lay
m
still g
de ple
m
e
in
t
im tem
sys match
g
s
lt
lin
sy
n fi a resu one
r
u
d
s
et
al r lace, a being
n
i
F
in p s not
t
o
e
n
voic
n
i
of
m
hanis
Refund mec
s
still in a mes
FAILURE
32
Frequent ch
anges in tax
es
and laws - m
ore than 450
notification
s and 100 cir
culars
have unsett
led the who
le system
Com
and plex t
ax s
sev
t
era
l ce ructur
sse
e
Li
s an - 4 ta
tig
d
levi x slab
Pe
at
es
s
tit
i
io ons
ns
a
ha re
ve su
be rgi
en ng
fil - O
ed ve
so r 10
0
fa
r
HOW SMALL BUSINESSES
WERE WRECKED
•One year after GST roll out, small
business were reporting drop in
sales and struggling with high
cost of compliance. As a Delhibased dealer of power tools and
industrial hardware said, he
lost 60 % of the business in the
first year as customers were not
prepared to pay Rs 18,000 tax on
a purchase worth Rs one lakh
and went to buy branded goods.
His business with an annual
turnover of Rs 17-18 lakh was
earlier exempted from excise and
the goods sold were only taxed at
5% VAT. Now the 18% slab and the
28% tax make his locally made
goods prohibitive
•According to a dealer of mild
steel ball bearings, his suppliers
in Punjab had shut their
manufacturing units, laid off
employees and had switched
to importing goods as they find
that economical. GST had made
manufacturing by small scale
industries unviable as the same
goods could be imported at a
cheaper price.
information technology took a
long time to be resolved. The first
filing system was so cumbersome
that it had to be abandoned.
Besides multiple registration
requirements complicated
thing for every one and made
companies fear about multiple
assessments and audits.
HOW GST WENT WRONG?
•Though the tax system subsumes
a variety of indirect taxes like
excise, VAT levied by the Centre
and States, sales and service
taxes, for small business people
the tax slabs under GST are too
high, much higher than the
grand total of all the myriad taxes
that they paid earlier
•Since only businesses with
annual revenue of less than Rs
20 lakh are exempted from GST
registration, most small scale
industries fall under it purview
and are forced to pay more tax
than before, even if it is just 18%.
What was wrong in
the implementation?
•Very less
compliance time
period
•Penalty and
late fee started
too early, from
November 2017
•Same late fee for
small and large
businesses
•Some returns like
GSTR-1 are very
descriptive
•Filing returns was another
headache for the small business
people. They have to delegate the
work to professionals, which was
an additional financial burden for
them
•Also compliance process became
a dampener with glitches in the
33
IMF,
AUGUST 2018
‘India, which is
like an elephant
starting to run,
needs to simplify
its GST structure’
BRITISH
BROKERAGE
FIRM HSBC IN
ITS JUNE 2018
REPORT
‘GST has not
delivered on its
promise to the
economy. Indeed,
its glitches
such as delays
in tax refunds,
the network’s
teething issues
and higher
tax rates, had
increased the
demand for cash’
34
Most of those companies lack the infrastructure to file the numerous
returns that need to file periodically and have to expend money on
seeking professional help
•As far as organised businesses are concerned, those with a turnover of
over Rs 1.5 crore were paying about 24% taxes earlier. Now under GST,
they pay less if they fall in the 18% category or a little more than earlier
if they pay 28%. Also they are equipped to upgrade the infrastructure
required to file a plethora of returns every quarter
•GST did away with countervailing duty, levied under old excise law, and
special additional duty imposed on imports to create a level-playing field
for goods manufactured locally and cheap imported products
CENTRE VS STATES
GST does not augur well for cordial Centre-State relationship as the entire
process would make the Centre very powerful as it decides on the rate of
revenue to be shared with States. Similarly it can affect some states that
are more dependent on products than services.
TAXING THE CONSUMER
GST primarily taxes the consumer and not the manufacturer. So the burden
of the new tax regime is on the shoulders of the common man
GST means one tax rate only.
If (it has) multiple rates, call it
‘RSS tax’... It is an undeniable
fact that GST has not yet had
a positive impact on economic
growth. The design, structure,
infrastructure backbone, rate
or rates and implementation of
the GST were so flawed that GST
has become a bad word among
business
persons,
traders,
exporters and the common
citizens.
P. Chidambaram
Former Finance Minister
This is a Government hypocrisy
by a hypocrite…..these four
years have cost us dear. It is
a very expensive ‘Tughalaki
farman’. I will give you an
example of how expensive it
is. AIMO is a very well known
premier organization. Its survey
reveals that operational profits
of traders have dropped by
70% since 2014. Job losses are
reported at 43% in the trader
segment, micro-segment
reports loss of 32% jobs, small
segment reports of 35% and
medium scale about 24%
Dr. Abhishek Manu Singhvi
AICC Spokesperson
35
AN ‘INSECURE’ NATION
Weak policies and lack of will for stern action made the Modi regime a period
that saw too many attacks on security forces
The brave are martyred. Their families struggle.
Forty jawans give their lives but are denied the
status of “shaheed”. While this man has never
given and only taken. Modi gifted 30,000 cr of their
money and will live happily ever after. Welcome to
Modi’s New India.
36
Rahul Gandhi
Congress President
N
arendra Modi’s stint as Prime
Minister would go down in history
as a period of weak national
security with rise in militant attacks, and
army and civilian deaths. Besides the
Pulwama massacre, Modi’s flip-flop policy
on Pakistan had put the nation at risk.
Why has Modi, the NSA and the Home
Minister not owned responsibility for the
unpardonable failure of National Security
and Intelligence apparatus?
PULWAMA ATTACK
The dastardly Pulwama attack happened
on 14 February 2019 bang in the middle
of the Kashmir valley. Convoy of vehicles
carrying security forces was attacked by
a vehicle driven by a suicide bomber. The
attack resulted in the death of 44 CRPF
personnel. Attack was carried out by a
Jaish-e-Mohammed member named Adil
Ahmad Dar, an Indian citizen. What were
the Indian forces doing? This is a major
break down of security and the Modi
government has no answers. This was a
planned and coordinated operation where
about 80 kg of militant grade RDX was
used to rip apart multiple trucks.
This was a
planned and
coordinated
operation where
about 80 kg of
militant grade
RDX was used to
rip apart multiple
trucks.
Why was the request of CRPF and BSF for
movement of troops by air denied by MHA?
Were the CRPF jawans not stranded for one
week on account of bad weather before the
convoy movement? Would air transit not
have saved precious lives of our jawans?
Why did the government ignore the
threatening video released by Jaish-e
Mohammed two days before the
attack?
How did local terrorists acquire hundreds
of kgs of RDX, M4 Carbine and rocket
launchers? How was an RDX laden car
permitted to enter the most secure
Jammu-Srinagar National Highway,
despite the ‘standard operating
procedure’ for sanitising the convoy
stretch?
37
Doubts over
Pulwama
The manner in which the BJP and the Narendra
Modi government tried to gain political capital
when Indian brave heart Wing Commander Abinandhan Varthaman was in the custody of Pakistani army is highly regrettable.
Similarly, the government allowing the Pulwama
tragedy to happen without heeding to recommendations for the airlifting of the CRPF jawans
in Kashmir raises many doubts because there has
been a pattern in recent Indian history that has
Modi strikes a pose for
a photoshoot when the
nation was in mourning
38
recorded many such acts of terrorism, all when the
BJP was in power and many of them when some
election was coming by. They are:
• May 1999: Kargil war. Indian troops had to fight
Pakistan soldiers for three months to flush out
the infiltrators who had occupied Kargil in the
Indian territory along the border
• December 1999: The hijacking of the Indian
Airlines Airbus A300 from Kathmandu to New
Delhi, which led to the BJP government releasing three Islamist militants at Kandahar in
Afghanistan. Those three militants subsequently wreaked havoc by planning and executing
many massacres including the murder of journalist Daniel Pearl
• December 2001: Parliament attack that saw five
armed Islamist terrorists entering the Parliament
complex. Six police personnel, two Parliament
security staff and a gardener were killed
• February 2002: The Godhra train burning incident in which 59 persons were burnt inside the
Sabarmati express train. The incident led to the
infamous Gujarat riots that left 1,044 persons
dead, 223 missing and 2,500 injured
• September 2002: The attack on the Akshardham
temple complex at Gandhinagar in Gujarat by
two heavily armed terrorists. The siege ended
with the intervention of the National Security
Guards after a day but by then 30 people had
been killed. The Supreme Court later pulled up
the Gujarat Police for the shoddy investigation
into the case as the six accused, picked up later
on, were all acquitted
• March & November 2002: Two attacks on the
Raghunath temple at Jammu. In March 2 suicide
bombers struck, killing 11 persons. In November
also two suicide bombers killed 14 devotees
• January 2016: Terrorist attack on the Pathankot
Air Force Station that left seven security personnel and a civilian dead, besides the five attackers
• September 2016: A pre-dawn attack on the army
brigade headquarters in Uri of Jammu and Kashmir that left 17 army personnel dead
• July 2017: Eight pilgrims were killed on their way
to the Amarnath cave shrine as terrorists opened
fire on them. Earlier attacks on Amarnath pilgrims had happened in 2000, 2001 and 2002 – all
when the BJP ruled the country
POLITICISATION OF BALAKOT
The Congress condemned the
Pulwama attack and praised
the IAF strike on a terror camp
at Balakot in Pakistan. In such
a tense scenario between India
and Pakistan, the Prime Minister
should have convened an all-party
meeting to discuss the issue.
Instead, he and his colleagues
focused on maximizing the attacks
for political gains.
The statement made by BJP
leader Yeddyurappa that this
attack will fetch the BJP 22 seats in
Karnataka [in the upcoming polls]
reflects their perverse mindset.
Amit Shah in a rally said “under PM
Modi’s leadership, the government
carried out an air strike after the
13th day and killed more than 250
terrorists”.
On the contrary, IAF’s chief B.S.
Dhanoa clarified that the Air Force
does not count human casualties
and the Indian and foreign media
have refuted those numbers
as well. All Indians are proud of
the Indian Army which belongs
to the nation. Congress will
vehemently protest BJP’s attempt
to appropriate the Indian army as
its own.
39
In the budget
for 2018-19, Modi
government’s
allocation for
the Armed
Forces was just
1.58 per cent of
the GDP, the
lowest since
1962.
40
‘FLIP-FLOP’ PAKISTAN
POLICY
•Warm welcome: In 2014, Modi
invited Nawaz Sharif for his oath
taking ceremony and gifted a
shawl to Sharif’s mother. Pakistan
responded with a dozen ceasefire
violations in the next few months.
• Cold shoulder: In August 2014,
Pakistani High Commissioners
decision to meet separatists
before official talks with India.
In a knee-jerk reaction, India
responded by cancelling meeting
with foreign secretaries. In the
SAARC meet at Kathmandu, a
perfunctory handshake between
Modi and Sharif did not translate
into a full-fledged bilateral
engagement
•
Soft Approach: Cross-border
terrorism in the meanwhile
continued. On the sidelines
of the Shanghai Cooperation
Organisation summit in Ufa in
July 2015, Modi along with Sharif
reinstated the need to commence
dialogue and engagement. A
National Security Advisor level
meeting between Pakistan and
India was scheduled for August.
• Cold Again: Within days of the
call for talks in Ufa, Gurdaspur in
Punjab and Udhampur in J&K
were at the receiving end of terror
attacks emanating from Pakistani
soil. Following this, the meeting
between NSAs was cancelled, as
India stuck to pre-conditions that
Pakistan could not agree to.
• Dialogue again: In November 2015,
in the Climate Change Conference
in Paris, Sharif and Modi reiterated
their commitment to the dialogue
process.
• Impromptu Stopover: In December
2015, Narendra Modi made a surprise
stopover in Lahore to greet PM Sharif
personally. This was as impromptu
as was his decision to demonetize
high value currencies. Within days
of his visit, the Pathankot Air base
was attacked by Pakistani militants,
taking everyone by surprise.
India even agreed to have a joint
investigation with Pakistan. However
with Pakistan blaming India for the
attacks, the relationship reached a
point of no return.
MODI TAKES CREDIT FOR
SURGICAL STRIKES
Modi took undue credit for the surgical strikes
carried out on September 29, 2016. The fact
however is such strikes were carried out in the
past and were never made public as part of
government’s policy of maintaining strategic
restraint.
Modi and his govt ran a high-voltage
publicity campaign including innumerable
press conferences/advertisements/ posters/
hoardings taking credits for Surgical Strikes.
41
• Cycle continues: The vicious cycle of violence
and terror continued unabated. Pathankot attack
was followed by Uri. India denounced Pakistan in
international forums and responded with surgical
strikes which did not achieve the desired goal and
led to great hardship of the people living near
the border. Neither did it lead to any appreciable
reduction in Pakistan’s cross border attacks. We had
a attack on Sunjwan camp in February 2018 and very
recently the Pulwama attack.
•
Modi’s approach of befriending one day and
ostracizing next day shows his incompetence in
foreign policy affairs. Working with Pakistan requires
understanding of complex dynamics, nerves of
steel and stamina for the long haul, which the Modi
government lacks.
COWERING BEFORE CHINA
Modi government did not confront the Chinese over
the building of a military complex at Doklam and a
new road to the south of the plateau though two Union
Ministers Sushma Swaraj and Nirmala Sitharaman
visited the country for bilateral talks.
The military complex had come up 10 metres away
from an Indian Army post and the road south of
Doklam plateau gave easy access to China to Jhamperi
Ridge overlooking the Chicken’s Neck, India’s gateway
to the northeastern states.
RISING ATTACKS IN KASHMIR
•In fact, since May 2014 when Narendra Modi became
Prime Minister, there has been a dangerous spurt in
terrorist attacks across the Kashmir Valley besides
the cycle of violent street protests.
•Since 2014, over 400 soldiers have lost their lives in
the combat operations and militant attacks in the
conflict-ridden state.
42
•A comparative study of data shows that there has
been 500 percent rise in the terror incidents after
the BJP came to power at the Centre in 2014. While
in 2013 there were 170 terror incidents, 2014 saw 222
incidents. The subsequent years, 2015, 2016, 2017
and 2018 have witnessed 208, 322, 342 and 614 terror
related incidents respectively.
•There has also been an alarming rise in the local
youths joining militancy. From 2010 to 2014, as many
as 114 youths joined militancy. But despite “Operation
All Out” from 2014 to 2018, under Modi rule, over 524
youths joined militant ranks in Kashmir Valley.
•Under Modi government, the anti-India sentiment
in Kashmir has certainly turned into hate-India
sentiment on the ground if the funerals of local slain
militants are anything to go by.
•While the wrong policies of Narendra Modi
government are pushing Kashmir Valley towards
Pakistan, even the Line of Control and International
Border in otherwise peaceful Jammu region are not
secure.
•The state recorded 2,936 instances of ceasefire
violations by Pakistan in 2018—the highest in the
past 15 years with an average of eight cases daily.
NEGLECT OF ARMED FORCES
In the budget for 2018-19, Modi government’s allocation
for the Armed Forces was just 1.58 per cent of the
GDP, the lowest since 1962. Parliamentary Standing
Committee under Major General B C Khanduri exposed
the neglect of the armed forces saying that 68% of the
equipment was vintage and there was no money for
purchase of emergency weapons
Modi shelved the raising of the Mountain Strike Corps
at the cost of Rs 64,678 crore. The additional 90,274
soldiers were meant for deployment along the China
border
ATTACKS IN
NUMBERS
•498 soldiers have
lost their lives
•278 civilians killed
•524 youths joined
militant ranks
between 2014-18 as
compared to only
114 youths between
The Air Force should be given an
opportunity to come up with facts. After
the air strikes, we were told there were 300
deaths, 350 deaths. But I read reports in the
New York Times and the Washington Post
which said no human was killed. Another
foreign media report said only one person
was injured.
We have the right to know, people of this
country want to know how many were
killed (at Balakot). Where the bomb was
actually dropped? Was it dropped on the
target? We don’t want politics over the
blood of jawans who guard our frontiers.
I condemn this attempt by some to reap
political dividends to get votes.... We don’t
want any war for the sake of elections, we
want peace
Mamata Banerjee
CM, West Bengal
2010-14
•Over 5000 ceasefire
violations since 2014
43
BANK LOOT SCAM
The Modi regime allowed 19,000 bank fraud cases involving Rs 90,000 crore to
happen. He also let 23 fraudsters flee the country after duping India of
Rs 53,000 crore
Nirav Modi (circled) was part of the Indian delegation, led by Prime
Minister, to the World Economic Forum at Davos in January 2018
This Rs 22,000 Crore (PNB) scam cannot have been
done without a high level protection. It must have
been known by the people in government beforehand
otherwise it is not possible. PM will have to come forward
and answer questions
Rahul Gandhi
Congress President
44
B
esides the known fact that
Gujarati diamantaires,
Nirav Modi and his uncle
Mehul Choksi, were close
to Narendra Modi, there is also a
Choksi-Arun Jaitley connection that
is intriguing: Choksi’s fraudulent
firm, Gitanjali Gems Ltd, paid a
retainership fee of Rs. 24 lakh to
Sonali Jaitley, the Finance Minister’s
daughter, for God knows what.
The escape of the uncle-nephew
duo, who was duped the nation of
Rs 26,306 crore, was not prevented
though a complaint lodged with
the Ministry of Corporate Affairs,
the Prime Minister’s Office,
Enforcement Directorate and
Serious Fraud Investigation Office
in May 2015 clearly mentioned that
Choksi had shifted his family abroad
and was diverting money in order to
run away from India after defaulting
everyone. Even the Gujarat High
Court was told about it.
was tracked down in the United
Kingdom, nothing has been done
about bringing Choksi back. He left
India in January 2018 and became a
citizen of Antigua. Though India has
no extradition treaty with Antigua,
the Prime Minister could have
taken up the issue when he met
his Antiguan counterpart Gaston
Browne in April 2018. That he did
not ask for it speaks volumes. Nirav
Modi, too, may not be brought back
in the near future, going by the
delay in the extradition of earlier
offenders like Lalith Modi and Vijay
Mallaya from UK.
not address this issue. After the
RBI governor Raghuram Rajan
identified the problem, the
government held a three-day
brainstorming with banks in Pune
in August 2015. The seven-pronged
plan to reform the public sector
banks, however, remained a nonstarter. Only more scams came to
the fore after that.
FALLOUT OF HIGH NPAS
Frightened by the surging bad
loans, banks cut down their lending
to industries during the Modi
regime. As a result, the growth
of industries was stunted, which
means that they were not creating
jobs. The Modi government did
When the Harshad Mehta scam
broke in 1992, Dr Manmohan Singh,
the then finance minister, was
held responsible and had to face
an inquiry by a Joint Parliamentary
Committee to explain his role.
Similarly when the Ketan Parikh
scam broke, Yashwant Sinha had to
face the music. But after the Nirav
Modi-Mehul Choksi scam broke, no
such thing happened and neither
the finance minister nor the prime
minister has been held responsible
for it.
While India has asked for the
extradition of Nirav Modi, who
45
THE GREAT INDIAN LOOT
Bank fraud cases peaked after Modi became
Prime Minister. And many of the defaulters
are reportedly close to him. Did the banks
take advantage or is Modi responsible?
Loan fraud cases amount to
Rs. 61,260 crore
PSU banks have reported
8,670 loan
cases in
the last five financial years
Excluding PNB scam, loan
fraud cases worth
Rs.
17,634 crore
reported this year
PNB reported 389 fraud
cases till FY17 amounting to
Rs.
6,562 crore
Bank of Baroda reported 389
fraud cases amounting to
Rs.
4,473 crore
Bank of India reported 231
loan fraud cases totaling
Rs. 4,050 crore
State Bank of India reported
1,069
loan fraud cases in
the last five financial years
46
MODI CAUSED RAISING OF
NPA
Going by records, it is clear that NonPerforming Assets of nationalised banks
went up from Rs 2,83,000 crore in May
2014 to Rs 12 lakh crore in March 2018,
making Modi responsible for Rs 9,17,000
crore worth of NPA. Besides crony
capitalism that saw Modi’s blue-eyed
boys getting loans unfairly, schemes like
demonetization and faultily implemented
GST caused the spike in NPA and the
collapse of banking system
SBI’S STATE OF AFFAIRS
In the 200 year history of State Bank of
India, its NPA raised to the highest figure
of Rs 2,25,000 crore in 2018 under Modi
government. In that year, out of 21 public
sector banks, 19 were showing losses.
To overcome the loss, the government
allocated Rs 2,70,000 crore
Non-Performing
Assets of
nationalised
banks went up
from Rs 2,83,000
crore in May
2014 to Rs 12
lakh crore in
March 2018
Why Jaitley
did not alert
the authorities
when he knew
that Mallaya
was about to
escape?
IT’S YOUR MONEY
What has been swallowed by
sharks like Vijay Mallaya, Nirav
Modi, Mehul Choksi, Vikram
Kothari and many others is
actually the people’s money.
For, the banking system of any
country comprises of the small
savings of the people. It’s the
little drops of people’s savings
that become a mighty ocean of
money in the banks. Though the
banks need to let the money
flow out of its reserve to earn
profits, when the borrower fails
to return the loan, the banks go
bust with the people’s savings
going down the drain. So, it
is the governments duty to
protect people’s money. In the
case of India, the government
itself lets its favourite borrowers
run away with the money.
LETTING MALLAYA
ESCAPE
If you are wondering how easily
Vijay Mallaya left India leaving
behind a debt of Rs 9,000
crore, don’t look elsewhere.
The culprit is Narendra Modi’s
Finance Minister Arun Jaitley.
When Mallaya met Jaitley in
Parliament corridor, he had
agreed to settle the dues before
leaving for London.
When Mallaya tweeted this
after fleeing, Jaitley had a
weak defence. He denied the
meeting. But Mallaya made it
clear that they had spoken while
walking in the corridor.
This
scam
exposed
the
weakness of India’s banking
system. It also soiled the
prime minister’s image of
incorruptibility.
The
prime
minister is well acquainted with
both Nirav Modi, who owned
several companies and used to
sell high-end diamond jewellery
under his eponymous brand,
and his uncle Mehul Choksi,
who ran Gitanjali Gems, as their
photos and videos together
attest.
Yashwant Sinha
Former Finance Minister
47
BURNING POCKETS
The common man suffered the worst in Modi regime as the prices of petrol
and diesel went up despite crude oil rates falling
Only 15 to 50 people are benefiting under BJP’s
regime. Prime Minister has shown the path to
capitalists and entrepreneurs but has led farmers,
women and youth towards darkness
Rahul Gandhi
Congress President
48
•Most of the two-wheeler users
lead a hand-to-mouth existence
and a price hike pinches their
pockets. Auto rickshaw drivers
charge more every time there is a
price hike.
•Whenever the price of diesel goes
up, the price of commodities
shoot because major transport
vehicles run on diesel. The
extra cost is passed on by
the traders to the customers.
Since Independence, as the
government had its finger on
the pulse, it extended subsidy
to diesel to keep its price much
lower than petrol. The Modi
government took away the
subsidy in October 2014, months
80
A comparison of the price buildup for petrol
between 2013 and 2018 shows a higher excise
duty and VAT contributing to the high price
109.47
Crude Oil Price
(India Basket, $)
1.79
12.68
Dealer
Commission
9.48
VAT (Delhi UT)
52.15
Excise duty
60
3.62
16.34
19.48
40
20
0
69.3
37.43
Price Charged to
Dealers (excluding
Excise Duty & VAT)
UPA - 2013
Source: The Hindu
POOR HURT BY THE FUEL
PRICE HIKE
Taxing
times
in Rs.
T
hough petrol and diesel
costs were always high in
India, it was only during the
Modi regime the price escalation
was due to the government’s greed
to make more money. Earlier, the
prices shot when crude oil prices
went up globally but under Modi
even when crude became cheaper,
petrol and diesel were sold for
exorbitant rates. Modi increased
excise duty twelve times between
November 2014 and October 2018
— raising Central excise on petrol by
211 per cent and diesel by 443 per
cent.
NDA - 2018
Modi’s Tax
after taking over, bringing the
price of diesel close to that of
petrol. The escalation of diesel
prices triggered an overall
inflation that continues
•Even the freight charge for petrol,
diesel and LPG goes up with
every raise in diesel cost and that
in turns reflects on the price paid
by consumers of the petroleum
products
Doubled
on Petrol
Tripled
on Diesel
49
`120
`110
`100
`90
`80
$
CRUDE OIL
$/BBL
$
`70
$
`60
`50
`40
$
$
$
$
`30
`20
2003-04
2005-06
2007-08
2009-10
2011-12
2013-14
2015-16
2017-18
`120
`110
`100
`90
`80
PETROL
PRICE IN
DELHI
`
`
`
`
`70
`60
`50
`40
`
`
`
`30
`20
2003-04
2005-06
2007-08
THREE CONTRIBUTORS
TO FREQUENT PRICE
HIKE
•
Crude oil price: Whenever the
price of crude oil goes up in the
global market, the domestic
rates of petroleum products
also increase. This is something
that India cannot do anything
about because crude oil price is
determined by various agencies
and consortium of oil-rich
countries
50
2009-10
2011-12
•
Value of Rupee: Since India
has to pay for crude in foreign
currency, whenever the value
of the rupee drops, we have to
pay more which reflects on the
domestic price of petroleum
products. Under Modi, the
Rupee’s value plummeted against
the dollar like never before
• V
AT: The Value Added Tax levied
on petrol and diesel is charged
ad valorem. It means that when
the price goes up the tax also
2013-14
2015-16
2017-18
goes up. Thus when the first
two factors cause a price hike, it
triggers the third factor, too
UPA VS NDA
•In 2013 when the global price of
crude oil was at $105.87 a barrel,
the UPA government kept the
price of petrol under check at
Rs. 76.1 per litre, of which the
central government took just
Rs. 9.48 as tax. The diesel price
was Rs. 52.54 with the Centre
taking Rs 3.56 as tax
•Under NDA’s rule, in 2018, after
the global price of crude oil had
come down to $64.70 a barrel,
the price of a litre of petrol was
higher at Rs. 76.61 and the Modi
government took Rs. 19.46 from
every litre. Diesel price was at
Rs. 67.86 as the Centre took
away Rs. 15.33 as tax
DIESEL COST MORE
THAN PETROL!
In a rare occasion, the price of
diesel went over that of petrol in
the State of Odisha in October,
2018. At that point, diesel sold
at Rs. 80.40 a litre and petrol
Rs. 80.27 a litre. That happened
because unlike other states,
Odisha charges a uniform 26
per cent VAT on both the fuel.
Since the other costs like base
price of the fuel, excise and deal
commission etc came on par
the equal VAT did not give the
minor difference that other states
could give to the two fuel. It could
happen only under Modi.
Central
government
saves
Rs. 15 on every litre of petrol due
to fall in crude oil prices. Central
government puts additional tax
of Rs. 10 on every litre of petrol.
Bonanza to central government
is Rs. 25 on every litre of petrol.
This money rightfully belongs
to the average consumer. It is
possible to cut upto Rs. 25 per
litre, but the government will
not. They will cheat the people
by cutting price by Rs. 1 or 2 per
litre of petrol.
Prices of essential commodities are burning holes
in the budgets of the all
Indians. People of India will
not forgive and forget the
Modi govt. for the ‘Fuel Loot’
and give a befitting reply to
the BJP in the forthcoming
elections.
P Chidambaram
Former Finance Minister
Randeep Singh Surjewala
AICC Spokesperson
BRING PETROL, DIESEL
UNDER GST
BJP government lacked the
political will to bring petrol and
diesel under GST. Because of
excessive tax by the centre and
states, petrol and diesel are sold at
exorbitant rates, thus burdening
the common man. Bringing petrol
and diesel under GST can reduce
the fuel price and provide relief to
the public at large.
51
LICENCE TO KILL
The cow is revered by many for centuries but the Modi government has
engendered bloodshed in the name of cow
Policemen in #Alwar took 3 hrs to get a dying Rakbar Khan,
the victim of a lynch mob, to a hospital just 6 KM away.
Why? They took a tea-break enroute. This is Modi’s brutal
“New India” where humanity is replaced with hatred and
people are crushed and left to die
Rahul Gandhi
Congress President
52
N
arendra Modi never
uttered a word decrying
the dangerous breed of
cow vigilantes, who have
killed at least 118 Muslims and Dalits
after he took over as Prime Minister.
On the contrary, BJP leaders have
eulogised the vigilantism, giving
legitimacy to the hate crime. Some
self-styled vigilantes like the killers
of Mohammed Akhlaq, lynched
on the suspicion of storing and
consuming beef in 2015, were given
jobs at a state-owned thermal
power company at the behest of a
BJP MLA of Uttar Pradesh.
LYNCH MOB COMES
ALIVE UNDER MODI
REGIME
•The Modi regime, on assuming
power, made the cow an
instrument of political warfare
and men from the
fringes sprang up
from all over
•Cocking a snook
at citizens’ right to
culinary choices,
Hindutva leaders
advocated blanket
ban on beef, invoking
the riff-raff in their
ranks to assume the
role of protectors of
the cow
•A demand for
banning cow
slaughter was
vociferously revived
by BJP giving rise to
a proliferation of cow protection
societies called ‘Gau Rakshak
Samitis’ in the cow belt, driving
vigilantism
•The ‘Gau- Rakshaks’, as the lynch
mob has christened itself, saw in
their new role an opportunity to
target hapless Muslims and Dalits,
who have always been their
punch bags, to satiate their blood
thirst
VIGILANTISM VS TRUTH
•Not behind every lynching
incident has been a real case
of cow slaughter or beef. Four
Dalit youth in Gujarat, who
were stripped and beaten with
iron roads in 2016, had not
killed the cow but only skinned
it. Traditionally, Dalits collect
carcasses, skin them, sell the hide
Die or fake
death?
Mohammed Rizwan,
a trucker, had to play
dead to escape from the
violence of mob. Rizwan,
who regularly transports
buffaloes from villages in
and around Pataudi, was
confronted by a group of
men near Delhi in April
2017. Though Rizwan
was doing nothing illegal
– he had the papers to
vouch for the legal trade
that he was part of – the
vigilantes just wanted to
kill him. They let him off
because they thought he
was dead.
53
Union Minister
Jayant Sinha
garlanded eight
men convicted of
lynching Alimuddin
Ansari in Ramgargh
in 2018 when they
came out on bail
to the leather makers and meat
to butchers where it is legal and
hence there was no violation of
law in that case
•Two Muslim women, who were
attacked in BJP-ruled Madhya
Pradesh in 2017 on charges of
carrying beef by a mob, were
actually having buffalo meat,
which has not been banned at all
Modi never spoke
a word against
the self-appointed
protectors of the
cow. In fact, he only
looked the other way
when the lynch mob
was having a free
run, striking terror
among the poor
people
54
•Father of an Indian Air Force
personnel, Mohammad Akhlaq,
who was killed in 2015 after the
vigilantes found ‘beef’ in his fridge,
had in reality stocked only goat
meat, which was revealed by tests
after his funeral
LYNCH MOB THRIVES
UNDER MODI REGIME
•When one of the killers of
Mohammed Akhlaq died of
natural causes later on, his coffin
was draped in the national
tricolor, sending across the
message that killing of an Air
Force official’s father in the name
of cow, whether there was any
truth in the charge or not, is a
commendable act as far as the
government is concerned
•One of the police officers, Subodh
Kumar Singh, who investigated
Akhlaq case and brought out the
fact that the meat in his fridge
was not beef, was killed in a mob
violence at Bulandshahr district in
Uttar Pradesh. Even that mob was
protesting against alleged cow
slaughter. The inspector’s family
suspected a conspiracy within
the police force that seemingly
supported vigilantism
•When 28-year-old Rakhar Khan
was attacked in Rajasthan’s
Alwar district and left in a pool of
blood, the local police not only
took three hours to ferry him to
hospital but also beat him even
as he was bleeding profusely.
They stopped midway to drop
in a shelter the cows that Khan
was accused of smuggling and
also took a tea break, deliberately
delaying the timely treatment
that could have saved him. Thus
the police openly declared where
they stood
BJP LEADERS
GARLANDED LYNCHERS
•A central minister, Arjun
Meghwal, said the number of
lynchings would rise as the
popularity of Narendra Modi grew
and justifying Rakhar Khan’s
killing, a BJP MLA from Telangana
called cow vigilantism as a ‘war’.
•In the aftermath of Akhlaq’s
murder, Sangeet Som, a local BJP
leader, said the lynching was a
show of anger against the state
government, which then was led
by the Samajwadi Party, as it was
favouring Muslims
•When a dairy farmer Pehlu Khan
was beaten to death in Alwar in
2017, the local BJP MLA, Gyandev
Ahuja defended the killers, who
had boasted of immunity from
the law in view of their proximity
to the legislator
•The response of RSS senior
functionary Indresh Kumar to
the killing of Rakhar Khan was
to tell Muslims to stop eating
beef if they would like to save
themselves from being lynched.
Kumar’s views were endorsed by
Giriraj Singh, a minister in Modi
government
COW VIGILANTISM IS
TEARING APART INDIA
•Cow vigilantism has heightened
the feeling of insecurity among
Dalits, Muslims and others
making them feel vulnerable in
their own country.
•If farmers are forced to take
care of their cows in the nonproductive years, one would be
spending Rs. 17,600 on a single
animal for each year of nonproductivity. In Uttar Pradesh
there are two crore such cattle
and it would entail Rs. 30,000 for
maintenance in Gaushalas
•India’s beef export has taken a
severe hit, leading to large scale
job losses. In the near future, as
the country may have to spend 1.5
times its current Defence Budget
to take care of an additional
27 crore unproductive animals
annually
•The imposition of lifestyle
changes thrust on people
through the bans on cow
slaughter and beef reveals an
intolerance by the ruling class
that is also seen a threat to the
basic freedom guaranteed by the
Constitution.
There can be no
shadow of doubt that
the authorities which
are conferred with
the responsibility to
maintain law and order
in the States have the
principal obligation to
see that vigilantism, be
it cow vigilantism or
any other vigilantism
of any perception, does
not take place
Supreme Court
55
RISING INTOLERANCE
Dabholkar, Pansare, Kalburgi and Gauri Lankesh were just a few who were
murdered by the Sangh associates. There is more, too
Tolerance is embedded in our culture and it is quite sad to see what has
been going on back home in the last four and a half years. We have seen a
lot of intolerance, anger and division between communities. It stems from
the mentality of the people who are leading India is generally tolerant, we
tend to listen and need to go back to that.
I don’t want to restrict India just to the boundaries of India. We don’t like
an India where journalists are shot, where people are beaten up for what
they say. That is something we want to change, that is the challenge in the
upcoming elections
56
Rahul Gandhi
Congress President
C
ommunal differences and
religious intolerance touched
a nadir during the regime
of Narendra Modi with Hindu
nationalists having a free run in
killing, assaulting and intimidating
people of other faiths. Apart from
minor attacks on churches and
Christians throughout the country,
poor Muslims were targeted in
planned assaults and were even
killed mercilessly
A SAMPLE OF ATTACKS
•Latehar in Jharkhand: Two
Muslims, including a minor who
were herding buffaloes were
killed. The bodies were found
hanging by a tree. They were
killed just because they were
Muslims
•Harda in Madhya Pradesh: Elderly
Muslim couple was beaten up
on train. Later, the leader of
the assailants threatened the
superintendent of police
because in many states the police
turn a blind eye to their crimes.
The same police are swift in
arrested people belonging to the
minority communities even for
sharing a post in Facebook
•A huge army of people are
involved in Hindutva propaganda.
They spread hatred towards
minorities in a systematic manner
through trolls, fake news and
social media posts. Call centres
have been set up further the
right-wing agenda and they
spread falsehoods, demonizing
Muslims
•Whenever there is an attack on
minorities, the leaders of the
ruling BJP justify the crime and
never ever condemn it, leave
alone demanding action against
the perpetrators. This has given
confidence to the lumpen, jobless
elements to unleash violence on
innocent people
•The ruling party and its parent
body, the RSS, have been
raking up the Ayodhya dispute
repeatedly, to spread hatred
against Muslims. In October 2018,
RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat, urged
the Prime Minister to enact a law
to enable the construction of Ram
temple in Ayodhya, which is to
keep the pot boiling
•By enacting elaborate dramas in
the pretext of protecting religion,
tradition, culture and so on as
they did in the case of Sabarimala
controversy, they mobilise people
and empower them to indulge
in violence. Those elements then
strike terror elsewhere, too, as
they consider themselves as
immune to the law of the land
•Sirmaur, Himachal Pradesh:
Noman, a youth hailing from
Sharnapur in Uttar Pradesh, was
killed. The victim was a cattle
trader
•Udhampur, Kashmir: Zahir
Ahmad was killed over rumours of
cow slaughter
WHY THE SURGE IN
HATRED
•Lumpen from the Hindutva
brigade has been emboldened
to attack and butcher anyone
57
AMERICAN
ALARM
58
The US was alarmed,
sometime in mid-2016,
that it asked the Indian
government to protect
citizens. Expressing
concern over reports
of rising intolerance
and violence in India,
the US asked the
Indian government
to do ‘everything in
its power’ to protect
citizens and to
bring to justice the
perpetrators. US
State Department
spokesman John
Kirby said, ‘we stand
in solidarity with
the people and
Government of India
in supporting exercise
of freedom of religion
and expression in
confronting all forms
of intolerance.’ He said,
‘the US looks forward
to continuing to work
with the Indian people
to realise their tolerantinclusive vision, which
is so deeply in the
interests of both India
and the US.’
•While the thugs attack minorities,
Dalits, women and liberals, the
RSS-BJP combine continue to
employ cheap tactics like spinning
fictitious tales in the name of
history and creating a sense of
pseudo-nationalism, which in turn
breeds hatred
•Culture is a product of our
all-comprehensive religion
(Hinduism), a part of its body
and not distinguishable from
it. India’s national culture is its
Hindu religious culture
•The government has embarked
on an academic project to study
ancient history with a view to
demonising Muslim rule in India
and rewriting history
The Ministry of Culture, in 2016, set
up a committee under K N Dikshit
to examine ancient Indian history
and the chairman made it clear
that he has been asked to present
a report to enable the government
re-write certain aspects of
ancient history. The committee
members are all right-wingers with
affiliations to the RSS. One of the
members, Balmukund Pandey,
has said ‘the time is now to restore
India’s past glory by establishing
that ancient Hindu texts are fact
not myth.’
SOME HINDUTVA PREACHINGS
•Democracy is alien to Hindu
culture. Manu is the first and
greatest wisest lawgiver of
mankind
•Only a Hindu, and only a certain
kind of Hindu, can be an authentic
Indian. Non-Hindus can only be
second class citizens
REWRITING HISTORY
DOUBTING
SHAH RUKH KHAN
BJP has taken
intolerance to
such an abysmal
depth that even
the popular
actor Shah
Rukh Khan’s
patriotism has
been questioned.
Kailash
Vijayvargiya said:
‘Shah Rukh Khan
lives in India, but
his mind is in Pakistan. His films earn crores here
but he sees India as an intolerant nation. If this is
not sedition, then what is it?’
Shah Rukh Khan responded: ‘Relgious
intolerance…. is the worst kind of crime. We may
talk about freedom of speech but people come
outside my house and throw stones. I have not
been in a situation like that.’
‘And those not killed by the State
machinery are getting lynched by the
well-trained and well-nurtured goons.
After all, if full-fledged training camps
are running under several right-wing
banners to target the ‘other’, there is
bound to be violence. What else will
the ‘trained’ men and women do but
to lynch and destroy structures, human
and otherwise. I have been told by several
villagers in Uttar Pradesh that if they are
not connected to the ‘shakhas’ and not
close to the ruling mafia, they will have
little chance of getting protection and
much more along the strain.’
Humra Quraishi
author-journalist
But another prominent BJP supporter was more
nasty by saying: ‘ If the majority community were
to boycott his films, Shah Rukh would have to
wander the streets like a common Muslim.’
Other prominent Muslims too have faced BJP
leaders’ uncivilised outbursts though they had
been known for their secularism. Yogi Adityanath,
when he was an MP, even went to the extent of
linking Shah Rukh with extremist Hafiz Saeed.
59
SAMPLES OF HATE SPEECHES
“You have to decide. Do you want a
government of Ramzaadon (followers of Ram)
or those who illegitimate”
Sadhvi Niranjan Jyoti
Union Minister
“Those with four wives and 40 children are
responsible for the population increase in the
country. Hindus are not responsible for the
increase in population. Strict laws and required
in this country if we really want to curb
population”
Sakshi Maharaj
BJP MP
“These people who call themselves secularists
are like people without parentage or who don’t
know their bloodline”
Anant Kumar Hegde
Union Minister
60
“Mother Teresa was part of the conspiracy to
Christianize India. Hindus were converted in the
name of doing service”
“In places where there are 10-20% minority
population, stray communal incidents take place.
Where there are 20-30% of them, serious communal
riots take place and where there are more than 35%
there is no place for non-Muslims”
“Those who want to avoid yoga and Lord Shankar
can leave Hindustan”
Yogi Adityanath
Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister
“Muslims have no business being in India and
should to Pakistan or Bangladesh… The cremation
ground inside the Taj will be destroyed.. Taj Mahal
was in fact a temple… Only our temple will exist and
only the pillar that exist around it will stand ”
Vinay Katiyar
BJP leader
In Pakistan, anti-Hindu minister
was fired. But here, Modi has not
acted on his hate speech leaders.
On the contrary, hate speech
from politicians has gone up by
almost 500% in the last 4.5 years
“Every Hindu should carry weapons like lathis
and attack other communities’ members if
they said anything wrong”
T Raja Singh
BJP MLA from Telangana
There is no such thing (cow slaughter)
happening in the state. It hasn’t happened
in the state in the last 15 years. Has it? We will
hang those who kill cows”
Raman Singh
Former Chief Minister of Chattisgargh when
he was in office in 2017
“I had promised that I will break the hands
and legs of those who do not consider cows
their mother and kill them”
Vikram Singh
BJP MLA from UP
“Muslims who assimilate into our culture will
stay in India. Those who will not are free to
take asylum in any other country”
Surendra Singh
BJP MLA from UP, echoing the voice of M S
Golwalkar in ‘Bunch of Thoughts’
REACTIONS
FROM ABROAD
“Religious intolerance has deteriorated and
religious freedom violations have increased in
India under Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s
regime.. since 2014, hate crimes, social boycotts,
assaults and forced conversion have escalated”
a reported titled ‘Constitutional and Legal
Challenges Faced by Minorities in India’,
sponsored by US Commission on International
Religious Freedom (USCIRF)
‘Authorities often did not prosecute violence
by vigilantes against persons, mostly Muslims,
suspected of slaughtering of illegally transporting
cows or trading in or consuming beef”
US Congressional-mandated annual report on
International Religious Freedom, 2017
“During the first six months of the year (2017),
Christians were harassed, threatened, or attacked
for their faith in 410 reported incidents, compared
with 441 incidents in all of 2016
Open Doors, International non-governmental
organization
“In 2016, students were accused of sedition
for expressing their views: people who raised
concerns over challenges to civil liberties were
deemed anti-Indian; Dalits and Muslims were
attacked on suspicion they had killed, stolen
or sold cows for been and non-governmental
organsations came under pressure due to India’s
restrictive foreign funding regulations”
Human Rights Watch
61
CHOKING CBI
When he feared that CBI might investigate the Rafale deal, Modi tried to
change the chief in a mid-night coup
Alok Verma
The PM’s blue-eyed boy (Rakesh Asthana), Gujarat cadre
officer of Godra SIT fame, infiltrated as No 2 into the CBI,
has now been caught taking bribes. Under his PM, the
CBI is a weapon of political vendetta. An institution in
terminal decline that’s at war with itself
Rahul Gandhi
Congress President
62
N
arendra Modi was
singularly responsible for
the shameful drama that
unfolded at various venues under
the title ‘CBI vs CBI’, which should
be read as ‘Shame on India.’ For, it
was a case of two top sleuths of the
premier investigating agency of the
country fighting it out like street
dogs, creating a credibility crisis for
the special police force formed in
1941. But it was all because of Modi.
MODI AND ‘CBI VS CBI’
•The government triggered the
controversy by first posting Rakesh
Asthana as special director of
CBI, just to spite the director Alok
Verma
•Asthana, a Gujarat cadre police
officer, was reportedly brought
in to subvert CBI investigations
against people close to the BJP
leadership. Though there were
slew of bribery cases against him
the Modi government needlessly
brought him into the CBI
government after Asthana stood
exposed and was expected to be
asked to go on leave
WHAT’S AT STAKE NOW?
•CBI’s credibility has touched
an all-time low under Modi
government after it fuelled the
controversy involving the top
officers
•By using the CBI for vindictive
actions, the government turned
it into its long arm. Thus the
CBI was impelled to play a role
detrimental to the functioning of
democracy
•Making the CBI raid the premises
of political adversaries and also
bureaucrats who refused to toe
their line became a routine affair
for the BJP government
Alok Verma
The CBI is
being misused
by Modi to
intimidate
political
opponents in
the same way
in which the
Gestapo was
used by the
Nazi regime of
Adolf Hitler
Rakesh Asthana
•When Alok Varma moved the
Central Vigilance Committee with
several corruption charges against
Asthana and also cracked down on
him by filing FIRs, he was removed
from his job in a dramatic
midnight operation
•In the meanwhile, Asthana also
filed a complaint against Alok
Verma
•An interim director, M Nageshwara
Rao, was appointed by the
63
MODI’S BLUE EYED BOY
Rakesh Asthana, who was suddenly appointed
as additional director of CBI, is a blue-eyed
boy of Modi. In Gujarat he headed the special
Investigation Team that looked into the
Godhra case. It was his team that said that
the attack was pre-planned though the initial
charge sheet did not mention it.
In 2008, he investigated the Ahmedabad
bomb blast cases. When Modi moved to Delhi,
the PM called him to join the CBI.
Why should the
government
interfere in the
functioning
of the CBI in
such a clumsy
manner if Modi
and others in
the BJP have
nothing to fear
about?
64
In 2016, Common Cause
opposed his appointment as
CBI Spl Director as his name
had figured in a Rs. 3.88 crore
money laundering case.
He has always landed plum
positions because of his
proximity with Modi
and other top
officials in the
Modi government.
•Nothing came out of the
many raids the CBI had on the
premises of many bureaucrats
and politicians. The raids in Tamil
Nadu are an example. No one
knows what was found in the
Chief Secretary’s office in Fort St
George and other premises that
were raided
•CB’s integrity has taken a
nosedive after the Modi
government took over, which
could well lead to the common
man treating the premier
investigating agency hereafter
like the local police force, bereft
of the awe and respect it earlier
evoked
•Hitherto, CBI enjoyed a high
regard among all for its efficiency
in investigating cases entrusted
with it. With people demanding
a ‘CBI probe’ at the drop of a hat
for anything that they felt the
local police would not be able to
handle that image has gone
•The ugly controversy is a blow to
Indian democracy because at the
end of the day the real loser is the
common man, who at least had
the hope that the CBI would be
fair and honest in protecting his
right and upholding the laws and
the Constitution
THE SPECULATIONS
•The blatant subterfuge of the
government to paralyse the CBI
has given rise to a plethora of
speculations, the primary one
being the fear over Rafale scam
•There is also a suggestion that
there has been enough evidence
against many BJP leaders in
corruption charges and the CBI
was being stifled before it could
unearth and bring them out in
the open before the elections
•The CBI could be misused to
intimidate political opponents
in the future as the Gestapo was
used by the Nazi regime of Adolf
Hitler
•Since the National Security
Advisor Ajit Doval was also briefed
by the affected CBI officers, at
the behest of Modi, the BJP’s
hand is very much visible in the
controversy
•The manner in which a CBI team
went to Kolkata to interrogate
the City Police Commissioner and
the resistance put up for that by
the West Bengal government
brought to light the politicisation
of the investigating agency and
how much it acted as a hand
maiden of the Centre
Central Vigilance
Commission
colluded with
Modi government
to transfer Alok
Verma by denying
him the right to be
heard. Why?
….where a posse of CBI
personnel
went
to
question
the
Kolkata
Police Commissioner at
his residence late in the
evening, though he was
only a witness, reflects the
changing mores of the CBI.
This should be a matter of
concern for one and all
M K Narayanan
Former National Security
Advisor and former
Governor of West Bengal
These so called raids, closing
and sending CBI officers on
compulsory
leave
during
midnight, show complete
panic. Just see what this does
to the morale of civil services.
This is complete disregard to
that and conducting such
raids looks like Soviet Union,
China or middle eastern
countries.
There is no prime minister
office (PMO). Only the PM. No
office. Every one else is like a
clerk or a worker, even senior
bureaucrats.
Arun Shourie
Former Union Minister
65
UNDERMINING
DEMOCRACY
Showing scant respect for democracy, Modi has been
demolishing its hallowed institutions
We are not the voice of one person, we are the voice of one sixth of
humanity. This is not a small thing. We are the voice of 1.2 billion people
and when we speak, we don’t want to speak as an individual. We want to
speak as this country’s voice: we want to be the country’s expression. That
is the difference between you and us
66
Rahul Gandhi
Congress President
N
arendra Modi was highly successful in demolishing institutions
that formed the pillars of democracy. The founding fathers
of India had built the nation on those institutions that kept
the democratic spirit alive even when minor threats came
the way of individual freedom or the country’s secular fabric or the
rights of citizens was concerned or the Constitution. Today we see those
institutions like the Judiciary, Parliament, Cabinet, Planning Commission,
Reserve Bank of India, Comptroller and Auditor General, Election
Commission being undermined.
67
HOW THE PILLARS WERE PULLED DOWN?
Judiciary came
under a cloud when
four Supreme Court
judges held a press
conference to point
fingers at the Chief Justice of India,
Dipak Mishra, over allocation of
cases in January 2018. Even an
impeachment motion was moved
against the Chief Justice in the
Rajya Sabha. Undermining the
Supreme Court happened when
BJP President said the court should
not have given the verdict that it
gave on the Sabarimala case
Parliament has
been repeatedly
insulted by Modi
and the high
point was that the
Union Budget of
2018 was passed
without a discussion. Established
Democratic Conventions were
thrown to the winds by making the
2019 Election Year Interim Budget
read like a regular annual budget
with announcements of substantial
measures
Election
Commission,
under Modi rule,
was found violating
conventions on the
announcement of
dates for elections
68
to the States. It delayed the
announcement of date for Gujarat
wilfully with a view to enabling the
state government come up with
last minute schemes and flood
relief work to impress voters that
would not have been allowed under
Code of Conduct. One instance
in which the Commission was
found behaving like a government
department was when its
disqualification of 20 Aam Aadmi
Party MLAs of Delhi was thrown out
by the Delhi High Court. There are
many others like some decisions
on Tamil Nadu Assembly after the
death of J Jayalalithaa
Reserve Bank
of India was
discredited by the
demonic decision
to demonetise high
value currency
notes in November
2016. Not only the bank lacked
in competence to deal with the
crisis that followed the note ban,
its autonomy was crushed. Then
the government diktats made the
bank issue various notifications
that were changing dates and rules
for exchange of old notes, which
corroded its credibility totally. The
RBI officers and employees wrote
to the government in January
2017 pointing out the operational
mismanagement
Planning Commission
was summarily
dismantled by Modi
though the institution
has a historic role to
play in the development
of India since
Independence. NITI Agyog that
replaced Planning Commission has
been found to be ineffective
Centre-State
relationship has
always hung by
a slender thread
through Modi’s
tenure. There
had been many
instances of Prime Minister and
Chief Ministers having vituperative
exchanges. The West Bengal Chief
Minister resisting a CBI raid was one
that hogged the national headlines
but Modi had badmouthed
Karnataka’s Siddaramiah, backstabbed J & K’s Mehbooba Mufti
and has been having a running
feud with Delhi’s Arvind Kejriwal.
Also Kerala’s Pinayari Vijayan was
insulted with a paltry aid of Rs 100
crore when the state was ravaged
by floods in 2018
The National Sample
Survey Office, whose
reports had a lot of
credibility among
the educated classes,
was needlessly
undermined by the Modi government for speaking
truth: Unemployment in 2017-18 was at an all-time
high in the last 45 years
Defence Forces were politicised by the
Modi regime by by-passing seniority in
appointing the army chief and invoking
pride in the military engagements for
political propaganda. The 2016 surgical
strikes along the Pakistan border and
a military raid of Myanmarese rebels
by the armed forces were indiscreetly
revealed for blatant use in election
propaganda, deepening the threat to
national security
Cabinet, which is collectively responsible
to Parliament, was repeatedly trampled
upon by the Prime Minister, who has
been usurping the duties of the Ministers
concerned. He would travel to various
countries and not let the Foreign Affairs Minister
go anywhere, only inform the Finance Minister of
demonetisation and not even inform the Defence
Minister of the Rafale deal that he struck in France.
He would inaugurate all trains even if there is a
railway minister. The list goes on
Institutions have been subverted,
political opponents hounded, dissent
suppressed and freedom of speech
sought to be silenced. Values, principles
and provisions of the Constitution are
under continued attack during the Modi
regime.
Congress party is defeating the BJP
in ideological fight as also the daily
discourse. Congress is the only party
that speaks for the entire country
as a united entity. Unemployment,
demonetisation and Rafale scam have
undermined the Modi government’s
credibility.
Sonia Gandhi
Governors appointed by the
previous regime were forced
to resign when Modi became
Prime Minister and those
who left were all replaced
by persons associated with
the RSS. The list is long but
it has been established that
Modi government has filled up Raj Bhavans with
obedient RSS acolytes. This goes against the grain
of democracy and more precisely against Supreme
Court observation in 2010 that the government
cannot arbitrarily transfer appointed governors
without compelling reasons
69
ATROCITIES AGAINST THE DALITS
Crimes against Dalits go up under Modi government
His (Modi) thinking is anti-Dalit. All Dalits and people
from the weaker sections know that the prime
minister has no place for Dalits in his heart and mind
and wants to crush Dalits. That is why we are standing
against him
Rahul Gandhi
Congress President
70
I
ndia witnessed an alarming
rise in violence against Dalits
after Narendra Modi took
over. The National Crime Records
Bureau registered a six to eight
times upsurge in the rate of crimes
committed against Dalits in the
five years than the previous five
years. Among the violent incidents
reported were crime like rape,
murder and assault.
Pained by the way Dalits were
treated in the Modi regime,
Savitribai Phule, BJP’s Lok Sabha
member from Bahraich, resigned
from the basic membership of the
party in December 2018 on the
death anniversary of B R Ambedkar.
She also wondered why Dalits were
not appointed priests at Hanuman
temples if Hanuman was a Dalit, as
claimed by UP Chief Minister Yogi
Adithyanath
Research scholar Rohith Chakravarti
Vemula committed suicide after he
was suspended by the University
of Hyderabad and thrown out of
the hostel, along with four Dalit
students, in January 2016. Action
against the activists of Ambedkar
Students Association followed a
complaint by the ABVP to the then
Union Human Resources Minister
Smiriti Irani, who forwarded it to the
vice chancellor. The ASA members
were accused of beating up an
ABVP leader up in his room.
Union Minister of State for Skill
Development Anantkumar Hegde
called a group of Dalits protesting
against his threat to change of
Constitution of India as ‘barking
dogs’ in January 2018. He was in
Karnatak’s Ballari district for a job
fair and skill exhibition when he was
stopped by the Dalit demonstrators
WHY ARE DALITS ANGRY?
Surging Dalit anger came to the fore
when the Supreme Court banned
immediate arrests under the
Scheduled Castes and Scheduled
Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act,
brought in by former Prime Minister
Rajiv Gandhi in 1989 with a view
to making the country atrocityfree. Though the agitation, in June
2018, called to protest the court
ruling brought Dalits, particularly
the youth, in large numbers to the
street, it was evident that Dalits had
a long-time grudge against the
Modi government. The Supreme
Court ruling and protest were just
a pretext to express their pent up
anger against the goverment.
Dalits, who had supported the NDA
(according to an estimate, 24%
Dalit votes came its way) in the
2014 elections, felt let down by the
Modi regime as the policies were
blatantly against them. Besides,
several decisions and utterances
of the government reinforced the
lack of trust among the Dalits.
One particular fear was that the
Modi government was against
reservations. The manner in which
the UGC changed the formula for
calculating reserved posts, and the
failure of many institutions of higher
education to fill up Constitutionallymandated quotas led to a feeling of
discrimination like never before.
The suicide of research scholar
Rohith Vemula led to a widespread
feeling of alienation among Dalit
students in universities, who are
generally first generation learners.
Adding to that sense of alienation
was the fear that started spreading
after poor Dalits were mercilessly
killed on the pretext of having beef.
The ban on cattle trade and cattlerelated activities came a severe blow
to the Dalits, who found it difficult to
find alternative employment all of a
sudden.
Dalits were also the worst hit in
the unexpected demonetization
exercise and also the hasty roll out of
the GST as they were mostly in the
informal sector. Also the increase in
the chasm between haves and the
have-nots, a hallmark of the Modi
government had given rise the
feeling that the privileged class was
enjoying more privileges than ever
before.
Two other issues that stirred the
conscience of the Dalits were the
nature of crimes against the Dalits
taking a turn a for the worst after
Modi became Prime Minister and
the BJP not bothering to appoint a
Dalit as chief minister in any of the
20 states ruled by it. The two issues
made it clear that the Modi or the
BJP were not in favour of the Dalits.
71
WHITHER LOKPAL
Modi scared to set up the watchdog?
T
he Supreme Court, in
January 2019, pulled up the
Narendra Modi government
for not appointing a Lokpal. Though
the BJP came to power on the
plank of anti-corruption, it has done
little to fulfil the promise. In fact the
selection committee to choose the
Lokpal met only in March 2018, 45
months after the Modi government
took office. Till then, Modi didn’t
72
chair a single meeting. In response
to a Right to Information (RTI) plea,
the Department of Personnel and
Training (DoPT) further revealed
that no meeting of the search
committee was convened during
that 45 month period.
The Lokpal and Lokayuktas Act
was passed in 2013 to set up an
independent and empowered
body to look into cases of corruption
during the UPA regime. The
Manmohan Singh government
held two meetings of the Lokpal
selection committee but Modi failed
to take it forward. Modi’s inaction
only points to his reluctance to
have a Lokpal in the country. How
can Modi afford to have such a
watchdog empowered to pounce
on corrupt politicians?
By only bringing political
parties which work for
the people, we will be
weakening the system.
Lokpal is one of them but
this was not allowed by
the Modi government.
We brought (the) RTI
(law) but this was diluted.
Demonetisation was the
worst scandal.
The biggest corruption
happens in land. We passed
the Land Acquisition Act
and Narendra Modi’s first
attack (was) on this act.
He wants to give land to
corporate(s). I was battered
for taking a tough stand on
the land act. You know the
leader who fights against
corruption comes under
greater attack. You check
the media and will know
who is being battered — me
or Modi?
Rahul Gandhi
Congress President
73
MONEY DOWN THE DRAIN
Modi’s vanity and pomposity has cost the nation heavily as he embarks
on meaningless pursuits like the world’s tallest statue
Ironic that a statue of Sardar Patel is being
inaugurated, but every institution he helped build is
being smashed. The systematic destruction of India’s
institutions is nothing short of treason
Rahul Gandhi
Congress President
74
With the Rs 2,989 crore,
Govt could have built
•Two new IIT campuses (considering one
costs Rs 1,167 crore)
•Two AIIMS campuses (considering one
costs Rs 1,103 crore)
•Five new permanent IIM campuses
(considering one campus costs Rs 539
crore) could have been built.
•The money could also have been used to
support ISRO to launch six Mars missions
or three Moon missions.
COLOSSAL WASTE
The 182 metre tall statue of Sardar
Vallababhai Patel at Gujarat’s
Kevadiya was constructed at a cost
Rs. 2989 crore displacing tribals
living in the area. Most of the
money was raised through public
sector companies like ONGC and
Hindustan Petroleum. The project
showed Modi’s vanity as the same
amount could have been used
in infrastructure development,
75
The Bullet Train cost is
over 3 times that of the
nation’s Health Budget
education and health care in India,
for which the credit of having
the world’s tallest statue means
nothing.
TRAIN TO NOWHERE
The Rs. 1,10,000 crore project to
bring a bullet train to India by 2022
is another waste of public money.
The train will run between Mumbai
and Ahmedabad, covering a
distance of 508.17 km and the fares
are expected to be 150 per cent of a
first class AC ticket. This is another
vanity project which has little or
no economic and practical viability.
The project has now been hit with
76
NDA’S PUBLICITY EXPENSES:
Print Advertisements
Rs
2128.38 crore
Outdoor publicity
Rs
620.70 crore
Audio visual Media
Rs
2131.57 crore
land acquisition hurdles and will be
delayed by few years with escalating
costs.
Why spend over 1 lakh crore
for a 508-km HSR used by rich
passengers when over 90% of rail
passengers in India travel by sleeper
or lower class?
SAFFRON SPLURGE
Narendra Modi’s style of functioning
is a threat to Parliamentary
democracy and Cabinet form of
government. For, after nearly five
years, his is the only face of the
government that is known to the
public. He achieved that by wasting
public money on advertising
himself. NDA incurred an expense
of Rs 4880 crore during April 2014
and July 2018, which was double
the amount of Rs 2048 crore
spent by the UPA on all forms of
advertisements between March 2011
and March 2014.
JAUNTS AND NUMBERS
•The money spent on trips till June
2018 was Rs 2000 crore, according
to an RTI reply
•A total of Rs 1088.42 crore was
spent on maintenance of the
PM’s aircraft and Rs 387.26 crore
on chartered flights during the
period between June 2014 and
June 2018. The total expenditure
on hotline facilities was Rs 9.12
crore till 2017
•Modi went to China six times and
to USA and China five times each
•By travelling abroad so frequently,
Modi was out of office every third
day
•Government still owes Rs 325
crore to Air India as charges for
the chartered flights that Modi
used
WHY THE VISITS
WERE A WASTE
•Relations with Pakistan did
not improve a bit. In fact it
has worsened, as it unravelled
through the Pulwama terror
attack. Modi could not move
beyond inviting Nawaz Sharif to
Delhi for his swearing-in in 2014
•China is pushing India around,
remaining a threat militarily and
economically
‘Mr Modi’s desire to
introduce himself to
the world was entirely
understandable after
many years of international
ostracism where the only
country willing to grant
him a visa seemed to be
China’
Shashi Tharoor
Congress leader
•Ties with United States are at an
all-time low
•Winning Nepal’s trust remains a
mirage after choking that nation’s
economy through a de facto
blockade. Now Nepal is getting
closer and closer to China
•Maldives is turning hostile
by refusing visas to Indians,
cancelling projects involving
Indian companies and even
adding the line ‘Indians need not
apply’ in the advertisements for
jobs open to all nationalities
77
FLAGSHIP FARCES, ALL
Schemes envisaged by the Modi government, purportedly to help the
poor, flopped due to the lack of understanding of the people’s needs
domain, the government spent Rs
530 crore on promoting the Clean
India Mission in the media since
the programme was announced
in 2014.
All schemes of
Narendra Modi
government like
the Deen Dayal
Upadhyaya Gram
Jyoti Yojana, Skill
India Programme,
Ujjwala Yogana and
Jan Dhan Yojana
have failed terribly
78
•Prime Minister
Modi had
launched
Swachh
Bharat Mission on October 2,
2014, by wielding a broom on
the streets of Delhi. However,
his government instead of
improving the working conditions
of ‘Swachh Bharat soldiers’ is
more interested in spending
the budgeted money on party’s
propaganda. According to RTI
information available in the public
•Under DDUGJY,
18,452 villages
were provided
electric power
but electricity
generation did
not show much of a growth.
Perhaps that was because power
generation saw a mere 5.66%
annual growth during Modi days,
which is much lower than the
5.9% growth shown during UPA
rule. Even the scheme is a farce
because a village qualifies to
be called electrified if 10% of its
households and public places
have power.
•Also there was
another Pradhan
Mantri Shaj Bijli Har
Ghar Yojana or the
Saubhagya scheme
under which poor
households would be given free
electricity connection but the
consumption to be metered and
billed. Most households did not
take the connection.
•The Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojana
with the target to provide five crore
LPG connections to women from
poor households by the end of March
2019 too was a flop and there was
no commensurate increase in gas
consumption as the beneficiaries could not afford to
buy cylinders priced at Rs 600 and continued to use
firewood and kerosene that were cheaper.
•The Jan Dhan Yojana that saw
the opening of 31.6 crore bank
accounts with a combined
deposit of Rs 81,203.59 crore,
under the scheme for financial
inclusion did not take off as 20% of the accounts are
inactive and 1.9% have been closed
•The Pradhan Mantri Awas
Yojana has also come a
cropper. Launched with a
target of 5 crore housing units,
3 crore of them in rural areas
and the rest in cities, by 2022, the project saw just
4.13 lakh houses coming up in cities till December
207. The target cannot be achieved at this pace.
•The Mudra scheme, which
focuses on meeting the
capital requirement of
first-time women and
Dalit entrepreneurs, has been advertised as a big
job creator by the Modi government. However,
a close scrutiny of average loan size reveals that
Mudra’s optics is more attractive than its reality.
Though nearly Rs 6 lakh crore has been disbursed
to over 12 crore, the loans could best provide
underemployment and not full-time employment.
Also the loans are risky as they had been given
without any collateral
•
Skill India was launched with the
aim of training youth. However,
marred by overlaps in roles and
responsibilities across departments,
the scheme failed In the first phase,
the National Skill Development Council (NSDC)
trained 18 lakh people and certified another 12 lakh
but the second phase could not reach the target to
skill one crore youth by 2020. Besides in the chase
for achieving the number target, real training did not
happen.
79
GOLDEN DECADE
Between 2004 and 2014
India progressed in all spheres
Apart from GDP growth, the decade between 2004
and 2014 was a halcyon time for the industrial and
service sectors. Agriculture grew at a rate of 2.3% and
it was a time when government polices had a distinct
pro-poor and pro-rural slant. A plethora of social
welfare schemes were drawn in that decade that saw
every Indian progressing. It was the time the UPA,
headed by the Congress, was in power.
LOOKING BACK
•
Kashmir was more peaceful
with militancy-related
incidents coming down by 10
times. By adopting a multipronged approach in militancy
affected areas and working
in close cooperation with
the state government, the
UPA government was abled
to contain loss of lives. The
stress was on development,
employment generation and
mainstreaming of youth
80
•Investment of public fund in
infrastructure projects in northeastern states led to internal
security improving in the region
with extremism-related violent
activities declining steeply.
Peaceful dialogues with many of
the extremists groups brought
many of them into the political
mainstream
•Left-wing extremism was dealt
with in a holistic manner ensuring
rights of the local communities
and good governance. An
integrated action plan triggered
growth in the region and brought
down incidents of violence
•Defence expenditure was increased by 154% leading to the induction
of sophisticated military hardware, missile systems and surveillance
technology and the welfare of the defence personnel was given priority in
budgetary allocation
•
MGNREGA, which is an acronym for Mahatma Gandhi National Rural
Employment Guarantee Act, was brought in by the UPA government,
benefiting every fifth household in the country, providing jobs for women
and people belonging to the Scheduled Castes and Tribes. It raised the
bargaining power of agricultural labour, improved economic outcomes
and reduced stressed migration
81
•Farmers benefitted enormously from the
enhancement of Minimum Support Price for various
farm products, increased support to rain-fed areas
and raising of agricultural credit
•
Telephone density increased by 25 times and
broadband connectivity improved in the rural areas
even as telecom rates remained the lowest in the
world. High speed data links were provided to 998
institutions of higher education.
•
Food security was ensured through improved food
production due to a three-fold increase of food
subsidy and a five-fold hike in agriculture credit and
reaching food to the people by raising supply through
public distribution system
•Consistent increase in health care led to
improvement in life expectancy and decline in infant
and maternal mortality rates
•
Welfare of minorities was accorded high priority
with the expenditure for it increased by 10 times
and beneficiaries reaped the fruits through various
scholarships and the multi-sectoral development
programme and priority sector lending from banks
•All Central ministries were mandated to allocate 10%
of plan budgets for the North Eastern Region, which
witnessed a growth rate higher than the national
average
•
Higher Education was given priority with increase
in outlays in the five year plans leading to Central
Universities going up from 44 to 77, opening of nine
new IITs and seven IIMs
•The revolutionary Right to Education (RTE) Act
enabled the nation achieve near universal education
at the primary school level - where the mid-day meal
scheme also helped improve attendance - and bring
down dropout rates in the middle and secondary
school levels
82
When figures looked up
•GDP by 3 times
•Per Capita Income 3 times
•Rural consumption by 4 times
•Agricultural wages 6.8%
UPA’S PERFORMANCE
1. Empty coffer?
The opening cash balance
on 1.6.2004, just after the
NDA government demoted
office was negative Rs 2730
crore
The opening cash balance
on 1.6.2014 just after the UPA government
demoted office was Rs 26, 510 crore. We do not
subscribe to the empty coffers – who left behind
empty coffer?
2. Foreign Exchange Reserve:
2003-04: UPA assumed office the foreign exchange
reserve was $ 113 billion. At the end of 2016-14 ie
on 31.5.2014, the reserves stood at $ 312 billion – Rs
1872000 cr
3.Foodgrains: 263 Million Tonne Wheat 34.4 Mt; Rice
28.4 Million Tonne
Total 62.8 Million Tonne at FCI stock asas 1.5.2014.
4. GDP 2004 Rs 30 lakh $ 500 billian
2014 Rs 120 lakh $ 2 Trillion
5. Lifted 9.5 cr people above poverty line.
UPA VINDICATED
A cheerleader for the BJP writing on the editorial
page of a newspaper thanked Mr Arun Jaitley and me
for engaging in a ‘high quality debate on economic
growth.’ He reluctantly conceded that I had won the
growth debate but charged that the Congress party
had ‘mismanaged the economy’.
Some of you may have missed the development that
triggered the debate. The development was the release
of the back series data of GDP to be able to compare
the growth rates of the past with the growth rates
since 2012-13 when the base year was changed and a
new methodology was adopted. Here are the results:
(see table)
GDP at Factor Cost
New Series Average
Growth Rate
GDP at Market Prices
New Series Average
Growth Rate
NDA 1 (1999 - 2004)
5.69
5.68
UPA 1 (2004 - 2009)
8.87
8.36
UPA 2 (2009 - 2014)
7.39
7.68
NDA 2 (2014 - 2018)
n.a
7.33
The conclusions are obvious: the 10-year period of the
UPA recorded the highest decadal growth (8.02 per
cent at market prices and 8.13 per cent at factor cost)
since Independence. When the UPA demitted office,
growth had recovered in 2013-14 to 6.39 per cent at
market prices. The Modi government had inherited an
economy that was on the upswing. Gross Fixed Capital
Formation in 2013-14 was 31.3 per cent. Merchandise
exports had scaled a new peak of USD 315 billion.
Foreign Exchange reserves had reached a high of USD
304.2 billion.
Under ‘true reforms’ would fall the Fiscal Responsibility
and Budget Management Act, passed by Parliament
when the NDA-1 was in office but notified by the UPA-1
government. Likewise, the Value Added Tax (VAT) was
implemented under UPA-1. Special Economic Zones
were established following the passage of the Special
Economic Zones Act in 2005. At end-2017, there were
222 SEZs and they gave a big push to merchandise
exports that grew four-fold in 10 years. PPPs were
instrumental in the aggressive expansion of capacity
in airports, ports and power. The Mahatma Gandhi
National Rural Employment Guarantee programme
(and the Act that followed) supplemented ruralagricultural incomes, staved off hunger, and created
demand in rural India. The universalisation of the Midday Meal Scheme had huge externalities.
- P Chidambaram
83
UPA ACHIEVEMENTS
IN A NUTSHELL
•
Implementation of Right to
Information Act
•
Right to Education Act
•
Right to Food Act
•
Right to Work Act
•
Land Acquisition Act
•
National Rural Health Mission
•
Integrated Child Development
Scheme
•
Aadhaar – Unique Identity
Number
84
•
Telecom Revolution
•
Bharat Nirman Scheme
•
Indira Awaaz yojana
•
Education loan for all
•
Agricultural loans – went up
from Rs 83,000 crore in 2003-04
to Rs 8 lakh crore in 2014-15
•
Agri credit cards given to 12.03
crore farmers with a credit
facility of Rs 6,17,233 crore
•
Direct Benefit Transfer Scheme