The statement given by the President in the Parliament, which is called the President's address, is not written by her. This statement is written by the ruling party which she represents. Therefore, when she addresses the Parliament by saying "my government" in her speech and praises the government, then she herself becomes responsible for the pronunciation of every word written in that speech and its wrong facts. The BJP cannot be absolved of the sin of being called a liar by the President who belongs to the tribal community, whom the BJP repeatedly mentions. Sonia Gandhi's comment "Poor Thing" should be seen in this context.
There was nothing new in the President's address this time, because this government has nothing new to do or say except corporate favouritism. This government has nothing to offer except presenting old facts with unverified figures and soothing the sentiments of the common people in the name of Viksit Bharat. This concept of 'Viksit Bharat' is also now turning into 'Hindu Bharat' due to the misdeeds of the government. The way the Prime Minister chanted "Lakshmi and Mahalakshmi" on the very first day of this budget session, it tells that the economy of this country will run only on God's mercy and the discontent against it will be crushed brutally. The methods of the Modi government so far tell the same thing, but Madam President is silent on all this.
In his speech, the President has claimed to have lifted 25 crore people out of poverty line, talked about bringing new schemes for the benefit of farmers, has again repeated the melody of India being the third largest economy of the world, has informed about the progress of work on the project of one country, one election, has given new information about Make in India now being attached to the global level, has informed that the number of higher education institutions in the country has increased and efforts are being made to bring back India's old glory in the field of education, etc. etc. With all these 'unverified' figures, claims and facts, she has claimed that the priority of "my government" is farmers, poor and youth, efforts are being made to empower women, giving dignified life to the poor, etc. etc. 'Unverified figures’, because many economists of our own country have logically challenged the alleged achievements of the government with certified data, international agencies are also not ready to accept the claims of the government and their research presents a different picture and most importantly, the ground reality says something else.
For example, take the President's claim of lifting 25 crore people out of poverty line. This claim does not fit with the fact that the Modi government, as claimed by it, is bound to give 5 kg grain every month free of cost to 80 crore people for their survival. According to the consumer expenditure data published by the government for the year 2023-24 recently, the average monthly expenditure for a family of four is Rs. 8,079 in rural areas and Rs. 14,528 in urban areas. This average monthly expenditure has been calculated by combining both poor and rich families. This means that poor families live much below this average and only Madam President can imagine a family being above the poverty line with this meagre expenditure.
Similarly, it is an established fact that more than one lakh farmers and farm labourers have committed suicide in a decade of Modi rule, which points to the terrible agrarian crisis in the country. Before coming to power in 2014, the BJP had promised that it would waive the loans of farmers and provide minimum support price of one and a half times the gross cost C-2, as recommended by the Swaminathan Commission. The government has clearly betrayed both these promises and instead passed three pro-corporate agricultural laws. Although it had to withdraw these anti-farmer steps under the pressure of the nationwide farmers' movement that lasted for one and a quarter year, but now it is again trying to sneak these laws through the backdoor under the guise of national marketing of agriculture, against which once again a nationwide movement is being mobilized by farmer organizations. Despite all the claims of the government, the truth is that the budget allocation in the field of agriculture and allied activities has come down from 5.44% in 2019 to 3.15% by 2024, due to which there has been a continuous reduction in food and fertilizer subsidy during this period. Similarly, there are major cuts in the budget of all the schemes made for farmers like MNREGA and Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana, Kisan Samman Nidhi etc. Therefore, the claim of his government being farmer friendly also does not fit anywhere.
The question can also be raised that who is getting the benefit of being the third largest economy in the world? Then we should have been at the third place in the world in human development indices too. Instead, we are the leader in the world of hunger and the largest population of poor people lives in our country. Forbes report shows that in the last one year, the number of dollar billionaires in our country has increased by 35% and the top hundred billionaires of the country have captured more than 25% of our GDP. Despite this, a conspiracy is being hatched to hand over all the natural resources of the country to these money-bags. The laws made for the poor are either inactive or they are being twisted in favour of the corporates. The result of this is that today our country is the country suffering from the highest inequality in the world.
In the same breath in which the President has taken the name of Ambedkar, she has also raised the slogan of one country, one election. The President is the protector of the Constitution. The Constitution has adopted federalism for our country and has planned for any elected government to last for five years, if it maintains its majority in the Parliament or Assembly. The Modi government is going to destroy this basic nature of elections and for this, efforts are being made to change many provisions of the Constitution. The President praising his own government's role of breaking the Constitution is definitely an insult to the Constitution.
When the harassment and attacks on tribals, Dalits and women are increasing in the country, the attackers have the open protection of the government and administration, and there is no dearth of examples for this. Incidents of urinating on Dalits, sexual harassment of sportspersons, displacement of tribals to facilitate corporate loot of natural resources, rape of their daughters-in-law and daughters by armed soldiers and crushing of their human rights -- these are happening only in Modi's rule. Therefore, the President's claim that the poor have got an opportunity to live a dignified life in his rule is also hollow.
The poor get the opportunity to live a dignified life when they get respectable work with minimum wages to sustain their livelihood, when they have easy access to education, health and housing and other basic amenities, when their human rights are protected. The path of privatization and corporate favouritism is prepared only by crushing the poor. The President's address and the Economic Survey presented after it have made it clear that this path will be widened and strengthened in the budget to be presented tomorrow.
The author is an independent writer on politics, social and agrarian issues. The views are personal.
There was nothing new in the President's address this time, because this government has nothing new to do or say except corporate favouritism. This government has nothing to offer except presenting old facts with unverified figures and soothing the sentiments of the common people in the name of Viksit Bharat. This concept of 'Viksit Bharat' is also now turning into 'Hindu Bharat' due to the misdeeds of the government. The way the Prime Minister chanted "Lakshmi and Mahalakshmi" on the very first day of this budget session, it tells that the economy of this country will run only on God's mercy and the discontent against it will be crushed brutally. The methods of the Modi government so far tell the same thing, but Madam President is silent on all this.
In his speech, the President has claimed to have lifted 25 crore people out of poverty line, talked about bringing new schemes for the benefit of farmers, has again repeated the melody of India being the third largest economy of the world, has informed about the progress of work on the project of one country, one election, has given new information about Make in India now being attached to the global level, has informed that the number of higher education institutions in the country has increased and efforts are being made to bring back India's old glory in the field of education, etc. etc. With all these 'unverified' figures, claims and facts, she has claimed that the priority of "my government" is farmers, poor and youth, efforts are being made to empower women, giving dignified life to the poor, etc. etc. 'Unverified figures’, because many economists of our own country have logically challenged the alleged achievements of the government with certified data, international agencies are also not ready to accept the claims of the government and their research presents a different picture and most importantly, the ground reality says something else.
For example, take the President's claim of lifting 25 crore people out of poverty line. This claim does not fit with the fact that the Modi government, as claimed by it, is bound to give 5 kg grain every month free of cost to 80 crore people for their survival. According to the consumer expenditure data published by the government for the year 2023-24 recently, the average monthly expenditure for a family of four is Rs. 8,079 in rural areas and Rs. 14,528 in urban areas. This average monthly expenditure has been calculated by combining both poor and rich families. This means that poor families live much below this average and only Madam President can imagine a family being above the poverty line with this meagre expenditure.
Similarly, it is an established fact that more than one lakh farmers and farm labourers have committed suicide in a decade of Modi rule, which points to the terrible agrarian crisis in the country. Before coming to power in 2014, the BJP had promised that it would waive the loans of farmers and provide minimum support price of one and a half times the gross cost C-2, as recommended by the Swaminathan Commission. The government has clearly betrayed both these promises and instead passed three pro-corporate agricultural laws. Although it had to withdraw these anti-farmer steps under the pressure of the nationwide farmers' movement that lasted for one and a quarter year, but now it is again trying to sneak these laws through the backdoor under the guise of national marketing of agriculture, against which once again a nationwide movement is being mobilized by farmer organizations. Despite all the claims of the government, the truth is that the budget allocation in the field of agriculture and allied activities has come down from 5.44% in 2019 to 3.15% by 2024, due to which there has been a continuous reduction in food and fertilizer subsidy during this period. Similarly, there are major cuts in the budget of all the schemes made for farmers like MNREGA and Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana, Kisan Samman Nidhi etc. Therefore, the claim of his government being farmer friendly also does not fit anywhere.
The question can also be raised that who is getting the benefit of being the third largest economy in the world? Then we should have been at the third place in the world in human development indices too. Instead, we are the leader in the world of hunger and the largest population of poor people lives in our country. Forbes report shows that in the last one year, the number of dollar billionaires in our country has increased by 35% and the top hundred billionaires of the country have captured more than 25% of our GDP. Despite this, a conspiracy is being hatched to hand over all the natural resources of the country to these money-bags. The laws made for the poor are either inactive or they are being twisted in favour of the corporates. The result of this is that today our country is the country suffering from the highest inequality in the world.
In the same breath in which the President has taken the name of Ambedkar, she has also raised the slogan of one country, one election. The President is the protector of the Constitution. The Constitution has adopted federalism for our country and has planned for any elected government to last for five years, if it maintains its majority in the Parliament or Assembly. The Modi government is going to destroy this basic nature of elections and for this, efforts are being made to change many provisions of the Constitution. The President praising his own government's role of breaking the Constitution is definitely an insult to the Constitution.
When the harassment and attacks on tribals, Dalits and women are increasing in the country, the attackers have the open protection of the government and administration, and there is no dearth of examples for this. Incidents of urinating on Dalits, sexual harassment of sportspersons, displacement of tribals to facilitate corporate loot of natural resources, rape of their daughters-in-law and daughters by armed soldiers and crushing of their human rights -- these are happening only in Modi's rule. Therefore, the President's claim that the poor have got an opportunity to live a dignified life in his rule is also hollow.
The poor get the opportunity to live a dignified life when they get respectable work with minimum wages to sustain their livelihood, when they have easy access to education, health and housing and other basic amenities, when their human rights are protected. The path of privatization and corporate favouritism is prepared only by crushing the poor. The President's address and the Economic Survey presented after it have made it clear that this path will be widened and strengthened in the budget to be presented tomorrow.
The author is an independent writer on politics, social and agrarian issues. The views are personal.
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