The year 2018 has been a year of political controversies, economic turmoils, protests, and the watershed #Me Too movement. Now, with 2019 being the year where BJP’s, especially PM Modi, popularity and Congress’ fate in the national political landscape will be put to the test, several issues would be raked up.
Here is the curated list of five issues to look out for in 2019:
1. Rafale deal, HAL And The Ambanis: Rafale deal was one of the major issues that attracted a great deal of public discourse in 2018. The issue is going to be at the center of political between the BJP and Congress in 2019 as well. While BJP is trying its best to get away from the independent probe into the deal that allegedly has raised many procedural alarms, Congress is hell-bent to puncture Modi’s claim of corruption-free governance.
Apart from procedural inconsistencies like bypassing the Defense Procurement Procedure, 2006, Modi government faces the allegation of unfairly selecting of Anil Ambani-led Reliance Defence Limited as the Indian partner to the deal instead of HAL. The details of the deal and backtracking on the statements made by Union ministers have further cemented opposition’s faith this deal could be used to corner BJP in the upcoming general elections. However, the issue won’t wrap up with the elections even if the UPA comes back to power. It remains to be seen if they would really cancel the current deal and renegotiate.
2.Jobs: According to the Center For Monitoring Indian Economy (CMIE) data, unemployment has risen from 3.41% in 2014 to 6.75% in April of 2018. Rising unemployment will create unrest among the youth. This would also cause a decrease in the purchasing power of the families and would also reduce the amount of money that people would be investing in the market and depositing in banks. Thus also reducing the money that businesses have. Unemployed youth would also be a disposable tool at the hand of politicians for creating unrest as they could be easily misled. The solution to this problem is making youth more market relevant by enhancing their skills and investing more in the upgradation of higher education.
2.Increased Cost Of Four Wheelers: By April 2020 all the new vehicles will have to be Bharat Stage(BS) VI compliant. BS VI is a more stringent emission norm as compared to its predecessor BS IV. We certainly did skip BS V. The stringent emission norms means a lot of newer technologies like Diesel Particulate Filter have to be used for diesel engines and also a better catalyst for NOx (oxides of nitrogen)reduction. All this would lead to an increase in the cost of four-wheelers by up to One Lakh Rupees. This means that there would be a huge buying rush towards the end of 2019 which can also give a thrust to the national economy.
2.Petrol, Gas price and Rising cost of household: Over the last year, we have seen a rise in the household expenses and also an increase in Petrol and Diesel prices. Though the prices did fall every time there was an election in any state. But overall there has been an increase in the cost and this coupled with the rising unemployment will add to the miseries of the middle class and the lower-middle-class families. This topic may not be doing rounds on loud TV debates but this is and will be a problem plaguing many Indian households.
3. All’s Not Well In India’s Neighborhood: The Indian government has been making a series of blunders when it comes to formulating foreign policy. We are no longer share a strong bond with the countries that have long been our long term allies such as Nepal, Sri Lanka, and the Maldives. Also, the new visa policies by the USA has led to a lot of Indians losing their high paying jobs in the USA. This has caused a reduction in Forex reserves of India. The only plus side to this is that now we have more better-skilled people in the job market, although making the already existing competition more cutthroat.