The Aryavarth Express
Agency (New Delhi): Politics of development has clearly emerged as a key narrative in the Lok Sabha election 2024 campaigns. Vikasit Bharat @ 2047 is the loudest high decibel bluff of PM Narendra Modi’s political campaign so far that has almost buried the three real concerns of the people – livelihood, healthcare, and education – though people are just not able to afford their cost. Over 81 crore people are dependent on free foodgrain supplied under Food Security Act 2013 and over 97 crore people are not able to afford healthy food. Obviously, the people who can’t even afford food how can they afford high healthcare and education costs that Modi’s regime has brought in the last 10 years? PM Modi does not only want us not to see this side of the coin, but also has been drawing our attention to India’s growing wealth and infrastructure and on his guarantee of a developed India by 2047, forming a key narrative of his election campaign.
INDIA bloc on the other hand is yet to bring forward a competitive development narrative with a remarkable difference from that of PM Narendra Modi’s narrative. Congress, as the major political party of INDIA block has been moving in right direction on focusing the injustice that Modi Model of Development (MMD) breeds. It is very difficult to deny that MMD creates immense wealth for the rich on the one hand and keeps almost 70 per cent of the people too poor to afford even food, needing government support just to keep themselves alive.
Despite MMD creating great inequality among the people of the country and breeding widespread social and economic injustice, INDIA block has not yet been able to drive home in the public psyche how dangerously common people’s real welfare is being ignored by PM Narendra Modi. They are not being given jobs and full social security coverage for a dignified living and honourable livelihood opportunities, but only a little quantity of foodgrains and some other freebees to gain their vote and support. They have been sold a dream that a day will come under PM Narendra Modi’s guarantee of development, when everybody will have enough to have “good days”. Modi had assured good days during election campaigns just before he became prime minister in 2014, but good days never came.
However, PM Modi never stopped his bluffs and guarantees. Whenever people questioned about his unfulfilled assurances, he just avoided talking about the past years and gave several other assurances instead for the future. Just before 2019 election, he talked about everything by 2022 including doubling of farmers income and about four dozen others. By 2022, he was talking about making India $5 trillion economy by 2025, by 2023 he was talking about making India $10 trillion economy , and in 2024 he is giving guarantee of making India a developed country by 2047. He always talks about dreams for common people as a cushion amidst their great suffering, a little quantity of ration, and the opium of religion. That is his magic for ensuring their votes and remaining in power, while channelizing the real benefit of development to only a handful of person and unbridled power for himself.
The real concerns of the common people – on livelihood, healthcare, and education – remain unaddressed. People have no hope that these concerns, and several others would ever be addressed under PM Modi, but most of them are psychologically overwhelmed through tremendous propaganda material generated by the people who are chief beneficiaries of MMD. They have money to hire people from the working class whose jobs are simply to create propaganda material for PM Narendra Modi has his model of development. When these paid people among the common start praising PM Modi and his model of development, the common people just misled away from knowing the real cause of their miseries.
INDIA bloc will have therefore to come with their own development narrative and expose the pitfalls of Modi Model of Development. Modi is by and large giving further assurances in the name of Modi’s Guarantee in his election campaigns, while he has been shying away from giving any legal guarantee, which we have just seen in the case of farmers’ demand for legal guarantee for MSP.
Farmers of the country are in very bad shape, so are the farm and non-farm workers. Youth and women are also under great stress due to very high level of joblessness among them. Congress has given several guarantees so far, which include guarantee for economic and social justice to all sections of people, including OBC, Dalits, Unemployed, Minorities etc. The party has also given legal guarantee for healthcare.
Such guarantees by Congress may help the opposition up to an extent, but would not be enough, since BJP is taking a political stand that such guarantees only focus on attracting votes but are detrimental to the economic development of the country. Therefore, INDIA bloc must come out with an economic development narrative that can stop the inequality and injustice breeding economic model of PM Modi which creates wealth only for a few – 20 companies getting 60 per cent of national wealth and earning 70 per cent of entire earning of the people of the country.
The business and industry people, who are not in the top 20 bracket, also know what is happening in the country, and they are also not satisfied with benefiting from only the spill over of the wealth and earning of the super-rich. Equitable benefit from the economic development must by guaranteed by the INDIA bloc to all smaller and middle level business and industry people, which may generate large number of employment and livelihood.
INDIA bloc must offer an option to the electorate for a better economic development model than the present one, which PM Narendra Modi is harping on with deafening high decibel election campaign under which influence people tend to become blind towards the actual miseries of the common people, farmers, small businesses and industries, youth, working class, women, and other weaker sections of the society. Social and Economic development must go hand in hand, and INDIA bloc must come with an integrated approach while bringing forward their development narrative, as part of politics of development. (IPA Service)
By Dr. Gyan Pathak
