The nation wants jobs, not jibes, Mr Prime Minister!

The BJP government continues to dangle the Vikasit Bharat carrot and presents the so-called white paper with statistical jugglery, running down the Manmohan Government’s 10 years rather than its own unfulfilled promises

Economics and politics may not be completely detached from one another. If economics is good, it is going to play in the minds of the people during the election – Nirmala Sitharaman in mint.

Now that the Lord Ram’s temple work is done, one was expecting the government to focus on working towards Ram Rajya which in a nutshell means nothing but good governance – governance that is inclusive as Ram would have practised and as Mahatma Gandhi spoke about.But there appears to be no end to the Prime Minister’s pilgrimages and religious discourses. I am not saying a word about religion. And for me, like many others, Hinduism is not a religion, it’s a way of life and culture. Religion in any case is a private and personal affair and one does not have to make a public show of it.

Prayers and celebrations should not in any way affect others who do not participate in them. In the same breath let me say that if one religious group celebrates an event in the streets, it should not have any objections to other groups doing so. The same rule applies to using loud speakers.

One would expect the wound of pre and post Babri events should be left to be healed with time. They should not be reopened again under any pretext for vote bank politics. If the BJP leaders criticise the Congress for appeasing minorities as part of its vote bank politics, they should not resort to whipping up majoritarian frenzy against any section for their vote bank poli-tricks. Religion does enjoy some space in our lives but not the beginning or end of everything. Life is beyond religion. In fact, all our religions teach ways of living peacefully.

Narendra Modi led BJP was voted to power 10 years ago amid despair and alleged widespread corruption. People saw a ray of hope in Modi’s promises and political marketing strategy – Ab ki Baar Modi Sarkar and Congress-mukt Bharat as he equated corruption with Congress.

Have things really changed for the better over the past 10 years? The only noticeable change is that Modi emerged as an undisputed leader and the opposition got decimated. Has Modi been able to make use of this unchallenged mandate for the betterment of society?

As we keep discussing, the GDP might be high, but in real terms its fruits have not reached the common man. Over 81 crore out of the 140 crore people are still forced to look for free rations every month – that too a mere 5 kg of grains! This 60 per cent of the population cannot afford to buy 5 kg of grains and we talk of pulling 14 crore people out of the poverty line.

This situation has arisen as the people have nil or little source of income which means they are jobless. The much-publicised schemes such as NREGA do not reach them. Or the benefits of such schemes are so low that they have to continue to depend on free rations.

While the government dangles the carrot of Vikasit Bharat by 2047, it does not talk of its goal to scrap the freebies. It merely talks of a high sounding $5 trillion $10 trillion economy. Meanwhile, Modi continues his unending pilgrimage that he began to undertake as a build up for the consecration at Ayodhya. His priority appears to be to develop pilgrimage centres. Kashi is done, Ayodhya is happening and now he turns to Assam.

He does not talk of the progress made by the country till 2014, but runs down the previous governments. He conveniently forgets the fact that the pre-2014 governments included the Janata Party and the BJP governments as well!

Look at what he said in Guwahati recently. PM Modi lamented the post-independence governments for starting a trend of being ashamed of one’s own culture and identity for political gains and failing to understand the importance of Bharat’s holy places.

He said that it has been rectified in the past 10 years with the help of policies focussing on both ‘Vikas’ (development) and ‘Virasat’ (heritage). Explaining the benefits of these policies for the people of Assam, PM Modi stressed the importance of connecting historical and spiritual places in the state with modern facilities, a move aimed at preserving these sites and accelerating development.

Be it a rickshaw puller, taxi driver, hotel owner or street vendor, the Prime Minister noted that the livelihood of even the poorest gets a boost with the influx of pilgrims and devotees and informed about the government’s focus on tourism in this year’s budget. You can’t bite this elusive religion carrot.

This kind of job creation has its limitations and moreover pilgrimages are also seasonal. You don’t find Tirupati, Varanasi, Shirdi and Vaishno Devi type round-the-year rushes everywhere. Even at Shirdi there are times when devotees have their darshan and come out in less than half an hour.

Modi also talks of infrastructure development that he claims leads to jobs. May I point out that most of the jobs that the PM and his ministers talk about are purely temporary and of contractual nature. Few big companies which are into Engineering, Procurement and Construction engage a limited number of well-paid employees as they work on lean-and-mean formula.

The government and its various departments, Ministries and undertakings have traditionally been big employers. So, that is the answer if the BJP government asks as to what the previous governments have done. They might have not interfered with the development of religious places but they certainly built what Nehru described as modern temples – the major irrigation projects, the giant PSUs and so on. The Railways has been traditionally the largest employer. The defence forces too engaged lakhs of youth. The IT revolution has led to the employment of hundreds of thousands of youth in India and abroad.

Cut to 2024. IT jobs are falling. With over 30,000 fired in just the first month of 2024, this year is projected to be worse in terms of job cuts as compared to last year, Hindustan Times reported. Google has already announced that there will be more layoffs later in the year, while two of the most prominent tech startups in India - Paytm and Byju's - are undergoing major financial crises this year, HT said. Wipro and Swiggy also announced layoffs. Amid all this, the BJP government continues to dangle the Vikasit Bharat carrot and presents the so-called white paper with statistical jugglery, running down the Manmohan Government’s 10 years rather than its own unfulfilled promises.

Modi continues to focus on jibes. He refers to Rahul Gandhi as an entertainer and then says Mallikarjun Kharge filled the gap in the absence of Congress VP who is away on Bharat Nyay Yatra. But no one can beat the entertainment that Modi himself provides to his benches with his mimicry.

Even after 10 years of its rule, the BJP has to depend on Jawaharlal Nehru, Indira Gandhi and Rahul to deflect attention from the main issues being faced by the nation – unemployment, price rise, hate mongering. It is shocking that Modi misleading statements from Parliament. For instance, he said Nehru opposed reservations. Modi conveniently forgets the fact that Nehru was part of the Constituent Assembly that provided for the reservations. Moreover, it was the Nehru government that extended the reservation policy that was originally meant for 10 years.

Neither Modi nor any of his ministers speak about the creation of PSU giants, the large irrigation projects, the green, white and IT revolutions, the creation of BanglaDesh, the liberalisation of economy and the fact that India emerged as the third largest economy way back in 2011 itself.

When will the government get down to providing solutions to our day-to-day issues rather than digging into the past and creating only balloons with promises for the future. Now, there was an announcement that India will be a developed country by 2080 – a departure from the earlier carrot of 2047!

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