Was 2014 the election that changed India? Some people will agree with disdain while many will clap and cheer for another term. Since 1947, the Indian National Congress and its break away groups have been passing legislations, enacting laws and governing a nation that is still learning to grow beyond what the first world countries have achieved. India is a young nation that is still trying to bring in a new era of micro economics, artificial intelligence and automated systems. It is still going to take a while until every person in India files their taxes online and works together to maintain law and order through good civic sense. Countries like USA and Brazil became independent from colonial rule in 1776 and 1822 respectively, as compared to India who won its independence in 1947. Nevertheless, Indians are talented and prolific enough to engage themselves in the global innovative race and glitter like diamonds in American technological research institutes. It’s true that while India is developing first world infrastructure, our talented minds are being developed in Europe and America. Someday, Indians will not need to migrate abroad in their efforts to make a niche for themselves in global technological innovation and development institutions. Though the Congress Party has provided governance and passed many bills to develop India, the effort has progressed slowly and now people are getting impatient. Saffron brigade shout slogans of ‘what has Congress done for India?’ The political movement gained ground in 2014 to the extent that the electorate mandated sacking of that grand old party. But in the last 4.5 years, scholars and political pundits have realized that in 2014, India had elected a government comprising of far less matured politicians.
Since 2014, we have seen efforts being made to advertise miniscule achievements and we must realize that advertisement professionals working for the BJP have become wealthy. Many will agree that the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting has been far busier than the Ministry of Science and Technology. Moreover, the think tank of the Indian Economic Scholars have taken a break considering that the Union Cabinet is more interested in continuing political campaigns to gain mileage over the opposition as the next elections keep nearing. What happened to the ‘Make in India’ and the ‘India StartUp’ movements we will never know? The Goa Chambers of Commerce held a number of conferences inviting the best minds in business. But entrepreneurs have spent a lot of time trying to understand the workings of GST & RERA. Even demonetization is still a topic of great discussions where businessmen struggle to understand how the government destroyed the black markets when RBI received back over 99% of the old currency through bank deposits. A poultry farmer once told me that every time a chicken laid an egg, there would be a racket of clucking birds in his coup. He amusingly shared the analogy that the present government operates in similar ways. Every time the present government introduces something new, drums roll and the bugle is blown to make sure that every un-interested head turns with curiosity. In comparison, the previous governments accomplished much bigger milestones while building India. What makes this special is that BJP loyalists will continue to push the agenda that the BJP has already changed India. What has really changed is that institutions like the RBI, CBI, Supreme Court and Lokayukta have already been compromised and the top directors in these institutions are RSS and BJP puppets. Nevertheless, the only milestone achievements that the BJP government made are the development of National Highways and cheaper Internet tariffs. The Modi Government decided that such infrastructure would grow much faster in the hands of Private Corporate like Reliance JIO who made it much affordable. How much revenue India is losing from the billions of connections one will never know. However, the government has sacrificed amassing great revenues to giving the people better services. Though the Modi administration did manage to introduce Aadhaar and GST post 2014, they could not fine tune the bills and the struggle to achieve efficiency is still on.
However, going back to the fact that India is growing under the watchful eyes of western scholars, the question of whether 2014 did change India did find an answer. Post 2014, the Prime Minister’s Office stopped having press conferences, instead ‘Mann Ki Baat’ was launched where the Prime Minister could speak as he willed without being disturbed. After the Modi government came to power, nobody has the right to question the government; television news channels have been compromised and become bias to reporting only news censored by government. Political critics have been charged with sedition using laws that became redundant after India became independent. Anybody who opposes the BJP is labeled a Pakistani agent or anti-national. Rights of freedom of Speech, freedom of thought, freedom of religious choice are getting eroded as time passes. Minority communities are being oppressed because of their traditions. Hindutva is the new goal of this nation. Rise in bureaucratic ranks and rise in power is not given to those who merit the office based on experience and educational qualification. Instead, office of administrative power has been handed to those whose years of membership and merit in the RSS are greater. Now people have realized the ‘value of true freedom’. Now the people understand that the policies under the RSS and BJP will ruin India in the long run. Now people are beginning to realize that human rights and human freedoms are a treasure as compared to nationalism, infrastructural development and an illusion of greatness.
