The general election in the country is reaching its climax, as out of 7 phases, polling has been completed in 5 phases. As per media reports, it is going to be keen contest between INDI alliance and National Democratic Alliance (NDA). During this election I have observed that media, which is considered as 4th pillar of democracy, is reporting in a very biased manner, and the social media is at its worst while writing/speaking about the elections and other political happenings in the country.
During this election period I have come across some funny statements, promises and announcement of freebies by leaders of various political parties, and this raised a thought in my mind that, are these politicians think public is fool and whatever they say will be accepted by public? They also think that public memory is very short and public will not remember what they had said or promised earlier.
Here are some of incidents which I wanted to share with you:
1 Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge said yesterday that INDI alliance will announce its PM candidate at a meeting after election results on 4th June 2024. He further added that we followed this practice in 2004 and governed for 10 years.
Comment- I think he has got a weak memory, during 2004 election campaign Congress always projected Sonia Gandhi as their PM candidate, and it was always a fight between her and AB Vajpayee. He said during 2004 the PM was decided after meeting with the alliance partners. Congress projected Sonia Gandhi as their PM’s candidate from the beginning, but she could not become PM because she being born in Italy, and then she foisted Manmohan Singh as PM. Even earlier in 1998, when Vajpayee’s govt fell by 1 vote in Lok Sabha, it was Congress under the leadership of Sonia Gandhi wanted to form the government, but at the last moment some allied parties ditched her.
2 Congress leader Rahul Gandhi gave a statement that PM Modi’s election campaign indicates that BJP is advocating the removal of reservations, and implied that elimination of both government jobs and reservations, which means “ Na rahega baans na bajegi bansuri, jiska matlab hai na rahegi sarkari naukari, na milega reservations.” He further added that when they come to power, they will strengthen the public sector by creating 30 lakhs jobs.
Comment- BJP has never said in their campaign that they are going to remove reservations. Regarding jobs, it is not government’s duty to create jobs in government departments/public sector, with the digitization the jobs in the government departments are shrinking, and secondly jobs in the private sector are available on merit and not on reservations. If Rahul Gandhi thinks by creating more jobs in public sectors he will strengthen the economy, he is sadly mistaken. The facts is the Public Sector companies over the years became so lethargic, that in open market economy system they failed miserably and that’s why government started disinvesting in them including UPA government headed by Congress.
3 Rahul Gandhi during one of his election campaign said that “ if they come to power in 2024, then from July 2024 every poor person in the country will start getting Rs 8500 per month in their bank account from the government”.
Comment- Did Rahul Gandhi realized that amount required by government every month to fulfill this promise will be? Suppose we consider at the bare minimum 10% of the population being below the poverty line, which means around 14 Cr people. If we presume 50% of these will be adults, which means 7 Cr people will get Rs 8500 per month, which will require Rs 59,500 Cr month or Rs 714,000 Cr per annum. Can Rahul Gandhi explain from where this fund will come? Most important, he has got no rights to pay taxpayers funds which are meant for development of nation, to be distributed as freebies.
In my views, Rahul Gandhi does not understand what he is speaking. He just repeats what his advisors tell him every morning. One day he will tell PM is a pick pocketeer, and next day he will tell PM is taking away reservations, then another day PM is working for Ambani and Adani. In none of his or any INDI alliance leaders’ election speeches they have said “ what will they do for the development of the country if elected to form the government”, but their campaign is only to oust PM Modi.
Waiting for your feedback on this blog.
Anil Malik
Mumbai, India
22nd May 2024