On 16th April 2017, BJP celebrated its 3rd year of historical victory in 2014 Lok Sabha election. Modi led BJP get the simple majority and after 30 year any political party was able to get the simple majority in the lower house of parliament. BJP won due to strong anti-incumbency against UPA government and due to the personal charisma of Mr.Modi
Today when I look back and compare both the BJP led NDA government and Congress led UPA government. I found that NDA is doing better where congress was performing miserably bad and Congress was better where BJP is performing poorly.
Let’s analyse my argument on the different socio-economic parameters. On Economic parameter and corruption BJP is doing better than congress, during the congress inflation was very high and it was close to double digit. Now, it is down to comfortable 4-6% bracket. Balance of Payment (BoP) shows improvement although the much of credit goes to the falling international crude oil price. The delivery of schemes is improving, thanks to use of ICT technology by Modi government. Road construction per Km per day has improved. There has been no case of policy paralysis as was during the last three years of UPA years. So far, no big corruption charges at higher level as against 3G, CWG, Adarsh scam etc. of congress era. Allocation of Coal blocks and 4G spectrum through auctioning which proved to be windfall for government exchequer unlike UPA first come first serve policy where there was a lot of scope of favouritism and corruption. Electricity shortage, coal production all improved during these three years although for coal production the environmental clearance was given at much faster rate whose impact can be analysed only after 10 years from now. BJP gives the hope and optimism to the people which missing during the UPA tenure.
On Social front BJP failed miserably, today’s society looks divided on various lines, particularly, along religious lines, take social media as a proxy, you can clearly predict in many cases the comment user made just by looking the name or precisely, the surname. If the surname is associated with Islam or Christian the comment is mostly against BJP and if the surname is associated with Hinduism the comment is mostly pro BJP. So, there is a case of religious tension in the society which is against the core nature of our country. Government failed miserably in Kashmir, the situation is turning out be of late 80s and 90s. The UPA government scored well on all of these fronts. UPA was able to control both the Kashmir’s matter and was able to maintain the social harmony in the society. In case of rural development, UPA scheme was well directed for ex in MNREGA they try to create job in rural area and boost the local village economy by providing employment unlike DDU-GKY where job is mostly available in cities. On Nationalism, there is no difference left between the State and the government today and both are used as synonyms but in principle both are different. Anything against the government is deemed to be against the state to be declared as anti-national. Due to this type of misinterpretation the people are labelled nationalist or anti nationalist which further creates division in the society and create another level of tension, this kind of division was unseen in previous decade, although BJP is gaining through this and it helps them to create a vote bank. Even on foreign policy front BJP only able to scores less than Congress. During both BJP and Congress governments, relationship with USA improved but during BJP our relationship with our two most important neighbours worsened and reached to a new low. Although Modi tries to find some new ally and succeeded to certain extent but on the most important front relationship with neighbour BJP score poorly in comparison to UPA. The autonomy of educational institution was threatened during the Mrs. Irani stint as a HRD minister whether it was the resignation of IIT-Delhi director or JNU incident. Although BJP was never among the favourites of intelligentsia and liberals but BJP faced criticism from intelligentsia and liberals. During Congress also institutions like Nehru Memorial Museum and library were degraded but IITs, IIMs, JNU remained untouched.
After the comparison of both the governments I believe that the most important factor which has been missing in the Indian politics is the strong opposition. In either of the governments, strong opposition was needed to check their functioning. The third alternative is also required as both the national parties performed on one front and failed on other. Mr. Rahul Gandhi asked BJP “What are you celebrating for”?, there are numerous reasons for BJP to celebrate but there are far more issues for opposition to check the government and expose them in front of people. So my question from Mr. Gandhi why are you sitting idle and waiting for opportunity, rather than trying to create an opportunity?
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