Since the BJP won the Lok Sabha elections in 2014, a lot has changed in the political, economic, and social front of India.
It all started with changing the name of the erstwhile planning commission to NITI Aayog. Similarly, lots of schemes that were introduced since Independence were changed—not their function, but their names. A lot of government schemes were renamed. For example, the Indira Awas Yojana, which was launched in 1996 to provide housing to the rural poor, was renamed and launched as the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana. Similarly, the most hyped scheme of this government, “Swachh Bharat Abhiyan”, which was launched on October 2, 2014, was the renaming of the Nirmal Bharat Abhiyan. So, on the scheme front, nothing very new was introduced by the government. Instead, they just advertised the old schemes with a new name. On ground, not much work was done for their implementation either.
Some plans were launched by the government which were ostensibly good. However, hasty implementation without appropriate research failed to give a result. For example, the Ujjwala Yojana, which intended to bring smoke-free cooking to the rural poor. But it removed the Liquid Petroleum Gas (LPG) subsidy which was provided to people living above the poverty line by the previous government. It also failed to meet its goal because, even after the implementation of the scheme, 80% of the rural population still uses biomass fuel, according to a report by TERI.
The Goods and Services Tax (GST), which was planned by the Congress, but was haphazardly launched by the BJP, showed the loss in economic growth of the country. With losses to many micro-, small-, and medium-enterprises.
Demonetisation was also one of the major failures of the present government, as it damaged the GDP of the country with the failure of getting black money into the system.
The government also failed miserably in generating employment in India. A Times of India report published in March 2018, says, that nearly, 31 million people are unemployed in India. A report by Huffington Post mentioned that unemployment is highest in India in the last 20 years.
The government also interfered in the prestigious higher education institutions of India. Assigning Gajendra Chauhan as the chairman of the Film and Television Institute of India (FTII). which led to protests as he was not esteemed enough to hold the position, but was doing so only to change the basic study structure of FTII. A similar interference happened in Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU), where students were arrested over a doctored video and JNU was called as the Institute of Anti-Nationals. It was done to tarnish the image of the institute and thus, muzzling the voice of intellectuals.
Press Freedom Index and Corruption Perception Index of India also scored low. Murder of social activists and journalists like M. M. Kalburgi, Gauri Lankesh, Narendra Dabholkar and death threats and the experiences of other journalists like Ravish Kumar, and the resignations of Punya Prasoon Vajpayee, Abhisar Sharma, all show how the government wants to curb the press freedom.
The defence mechanism of India is also under constant struggle without enough arms and ammunition. An army official claimed that they were even not being provided proper food. Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) claims they do not have enough projects. In such circumstances, a private company, Reliance, was made in-charge of Rafale deal and not the HAL, which is the responsibility of the government. India has also decreased its expenditure on defence, says an Economic Times report.
The agricultural sector is also failing miserably. There has been an increase in protests after farmer suicides, with no appropriate response from the government.
In this government’s reign, the social security of the weaker sections of society has also decreased, with an increase in mob lynching, rape, and fake encounters.
Democratic freedom has also decreased. India slipped from the 32nd rank in the Global Democracy Index to 42nd in the year 2018.
Politics of India has stooped to a new low, where the main concern is not unemployment or increasing pollution, but that MLAs or MPs now favour the stronger sections of society. Even prestigious bodies like the CBI, the courts, and the Election Commission of India are all, in my opinion, promoting RSS ideologies.
Thus, the BJP failed miserably as a government, and has made India backward again, in all aspects, socially, economically, democratically, and politically.