India deserves a leader who can improve its socio-economic conditions

Last week, the BJP government led by Narendra Modi completed seven years of office. India’s economic landscape witnessed an unexpected transformation during its rule. In 2014, when India’s economy seemed to have gone slightly off track in terms of GDP, Modi rose to fame with the promise of delivering ‘Vikas and ‘Achhe din’ to the people. And regardless of the economy’s worst performance in his first five-year term, Modi manipulated the Evms and once again became the Prime Minister in 2019.

In the last seven years, BJP fortified its base across several states, winning one province after another, emerging as one of the most dominant parties under Modi and Amit Shah’s combined rule.

While the major opposition party, the Indian National Congress, still finds itself lost in the country’s corner, losing the recent elections, except for a coalition government in Tamil Nadu, in contrast, BJP won the polls in Assam and Puducherry, losing in West Bengal, Kerala and Tamil Nadu.

Under Modi’s regime, India has observed the worst economic performance in the last 42 years. Modi government’s mishandling of the pandemic, the rising centralization of economic power in a democracy, the introduction of unconstitutional laws, and impromptu governance have led to the catastrophe among the citizens and weakened the economy.

Many experts observe the Modi government’s decision to demonetize India’s currency overnight in November 2016 as a massive trigger that set India’s growth into a downward surge. While demonetisation’s ripples and a poorly-designed, abruptly-enforced Good and Services Tax (GST) spread through an economy that was already struggling with huge bad loans in the banking system, GDP’s rate fell from over 8% in 2017 to almost 4% in 2020, just before the pandemic hit.

Even before the pandemic hit the economy, India’s GDP growth was on the decline. Although many neighboring countries, which were underdeveloped in terms of the economy compared to India, are now leading. In 2020, India’s annual GDP performance crashed to -0.8%, the worst among all the developing nations, whereas Bangladesh grew at 3.8%. India’s GDP shrank by 7.3% in 2020-21. In 2019, India’s youth unemployment rate touched 23%, and as of May 2021, the unemployment rates surge by 14.7%. For a country that was the world’s fastest-growing economy before seven years, is now crashing downwards.

India was the epicenter of the global pandemic. Modi’s government mishandled the deadly pandemic and continued their election campaigns with jampacked audiences and not following Covid-19 protocols. He also allowed the religious gathering of millions, which was a super spreader event, according to the health officials. India being the world’s largest vaccine producer, struggles to vaccinate its 1.39 billion citizens as it sent over 10 million vaccine doses to the neighbouring countries. Only 1.9% of the population has been vaccinated as of May. And even with the under-reporting of Covid-19 fatalities, India reports over 240 deaths per million. Hence it’s not just the economy that is worst in facing a mishap under his rule.

The introduction of the unconstitutional laws by the Centre from abrogating Article 370, Article 35A, the fundamental status of Jammu and Kashmir to the discriminatory Citizenship Amendment Act, and now the recent Farm laws, Modi’s regime has not just reformed the constitutional relationship with the citizens but also rattled India’s delicate integrated balance. It has strangled the freedom of speech in the world’s largest democracy. India is now on the track to centralize power and turning into a unitary state rather than a federal one.

While basic democratic rights have come under siege, the right to dissent, a fundamental right implied in the Indian constitution, has now become anti-national under the reign of Modi. Therefore, those in authority will retaliate with the atrocious abuse of power if there is criticism these days.

Those who spoke against the government are already facing persecution; hundreds of activists, peaceful protesters, students are all held under detention and accused of sedition, criminal defamation. They have also targeted many journalists and critics under criminal defamation laws. Thus, dissent in India has to pay a huge price under Modi-Shah’s reign.

Seven years of Modi’s regime in India has created a hollow in the nation’s federal landscape. People’s faith in the government for Achhe din and Vikas remain wounded. Although the pandemic destroyed millions of livelihoods, many more are likely to be affected in the coming weeks. Of course, it is a challenging time, but millions live in wretched poverty, while India grows at pace of 6%-7%.

Therefore Modi’s promise of Vikas which means growth and ‘Acche din’, meaning good days, is only privileged to his party and his capitalist friends, such as Ambani and Adani who reported a rise in their net worth during the lockdown, while Ambani became Asia’s only tycoon to be among the world’s top ten richest people.

India deserves a leader who can improve its social and economic conditions and is dedicated to work for the well being of the marginalized.

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