Life beyond G20, let’s focus on G28

As the nation begins the festive season with Ganesh Utsav this week, let us pray that our politicians realise the importance of G28 and celebrate cooperative federalism in its letter and spirit. India or Bharat notwithstanding, we the people matter

The G20 New Delhi summit is over and let's just allow Brazil to start making preparations rather than continue to paint a rosy picture of what the Modi Government did and achieved.

No doubt the G20 summit was a great gathering, but the inherent differences between the member nations have started coming out now that the leaders have returned to their homes. The US, Canada and the UK had their issues and they are all reported by the foreign media and reproduced in Indian media too. We need not discuss them in detail since the problems will continue to exist despite the India side singing tunes of G20’s grand success.

While the pro-BJP media (read almost all the electronic channels) joined and amplified the ruling dispensation’s claims, the minority youtubers with considerable following did prick holes in the balloons being blown by the former. Raveesh Kumar with a subscriber strength of over 7 million has run a series on the G20 hoopla and his analysis was not bereft of facts. To that extent one got to know about both sides of the coin called G20. Then of course, we had the WhatsApp university professors from both the ruling and other sides chipping in and fighting it out.

I think it’s time that the BJP and its 180 million (claimed) members realised that it is an exaggeration to say that the event was a big honour for the nation to get the opportunity to host the summit. This hosting happens by rotation. Bali hosted before us and Brazil is going to do it next. It is not as though Delhi has won the bid for the Olympics. Remember, India had already hosted major events such as the Commonwealth summit with a hundred plus nations participating. I was lucky to cover the event called CHOGM in Goa way back in 1983. India also hosted Asian Games and Commonwealth Games.

These kinds of events come and go and life must go on. Life is beyond such events and creating move events out of such events. The G20 summit was preceded by over 200 events across the country and in each place India’s real story – poverty and slums – was hidden behind huge curtains. It became so obvious as the delegates could not miss the curtains almost in uniformity all across wherever they travelled. My question is what was there to hide and we are telling the world that 80 crore people out of the 140 crore cannot afford two square meals a day and that the government is giving them free and subsidised food grains and pulses?

We have been repeatedly discussing in these columns on the need to get out of deflections and begin to realise the stark realities. It is all fine to issue declarations stressing the need for global cooperation and involvement to solve humanity's problems. Charity begins at home and let’s be charitable to our own issues of frequent price rise, rampant unemployment and above all, the most dangerous cancer called hatred.

Political parties, media houses and journalists supporting them and the so-called political analysts should all realise the poison that they are spreading by perpetuating hatred by picking up a series of religious and social issues. They all say that Hindu religion or Sanatan Dharma is age-old and no power on the earth can harm it, let alone dream of destroying it. Perfect. Then, why worry about it and spread hatred towards other religions?

Modi invokes Mahatma Gandhi and says Bapu too practised Sanatan Dharma. But Gandhi also practised the principle of Ishwar-Allah-Tero-Naam.

Pardon me if I am wrong: first of all, Hinduism is not a religion. It is a way of life. It is culture. This culture has been in existence for thousands of years and will continue for ages, because it teaches understanding, love and the concept of VasudhaivaKutumbakam and not hatred. There is nothing new about it, but we must keep reminding ourselves of this whenever we forget old concepts.

Now that we have spoken and written about it at the G20 summit, let us move on using the same plank. Call it India or Bharat, it is our world and let us treat our world as one and not divide between BJP and non-BJP States.

Top priority must be given to make the 80-crore free ration beneficiaries to get out of that freebie status. These families could be across India and it is impossible that they exist only in BJP-ruled States that the party keeps harping on and glorifying it. Is it not a dichotomy that the Prime Minister while talks highly of providing free food to 80 crore people, cautions against the States populist policies?

Look at what he told PTI in his pre-G20 summit exclusive: “I have urged our State governments to be conscious about financial discipline as well. Whether it is in the National Conference of Chief Secretaries or any such platform, I have said that financially irresponsible policies and populism may give political results in the short term but will extract a great social and economic price in the long term. Those who suffer those consequences the most are often the poorest and the most vulnerable.”

To illustrate this further, why does the Centre get perturbed when a non-BJP ruled State such as Karnataka wants to give free rations to the poor? Can the Centre point out that the free ration to 80 crore people covers people in Karnataka as well? Can it not throw data on the fact of Karnataka CM K Siddaramaiah? Probably, they cannot. I have myself asked for State-wise data of this free rations to 80 crore people under the RTI Act. I am yet to get a reply from Piyush Goyal's Ministry.

Isn't it time to stop announcing huge projects and promises just ahead of elections? Prime Minister Modi launched Rs 50,000 crore worth projects in poll-bound Madhya Pradesh last week and he said: “The Central Government is spending more than 50,000 crore rupees on these projects. Can you imagine what fifty thousand crores mean? The entire annual budget of many States in our country is not as much as the Indian government is spending for just one program today. This shows how big our commitment is to Madhya Pradesh. All these projects will provide employment to thousands of youth in Madhya Pradesh in the coming times. These projects are going to fulfil the dreams of the poor and middle-class families.”

All this is fine, but why show so much importance to the State which is going for elections shortly, as if other States do not deserve such projects and investments?

Is it the BJP’s monopoly to promise freebies (revdy as Modi himself says!) and that the other parties are not entitled to it? Cooperative federalism is just not about making tall promises and big speeches; it is also about taking all the States into confidence and working with them.

As the nation begins the festive season with Ganesh Utsav this week, let us pray that our politicians realise the importance of G28 and celebrate cooperative federalism in its letter and spirit. India or Bharat notwithstanding, we the people matter.

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(The columnist is a Mumbai-based independent media veteran, running websites and a youtube channel known for his thought-provoking messaging.)