10 years back, India held
its 14th lok sabha elections. Congress contested in 400 seats and had won 145
of them. BJP had contested in 364 seats and had won 138 in them. Other Big
winners were CPI -43,SP-36,RJD-24,BSP-19. Congress formed an allaince called UPA(Universal
progressive allaice) with 13 other parties. This allaince along with the
outside support of other parties formed the Govt. NDA could only get 185 seats
forming the opposition. The Italian Godmother of Indian National Congress
couldnt become PM because of certain legal issues. So, There had to be another
person who had to head govt but couldnt in a true sense head his MP's.
Godmother had exactly one such person out of the many extremely honest Gandhi
loyalists. He was the champion of the over hyped economic reforms of
Independent India, Dr. Manmohan Singh.
Dr. Manmohan Singh has BA in Economics, MA in
Economics, Honours Degree in Economics from Cambridge University, DPhil in
Economics from Oxford University. He has worked in UN. He has been Economy
advisor for many Govt.'s of India. He is also believed to have brought India
out of economic crisis in 1991 along with the then PM PV Narasimha Rao.
Logically, We would think that India had got an excellent,highly
qualified,elite person to head the country who inherited nearly 8% GDP growth
from previous Govt of Atalji.
With such an precious oppurtunity, Singh should
have lead our Country into a Decade of Growth,Development and Prosperity. What
happened is altogether the exact opposite. The juggernaut of GDP growth
continued its momemtum for next 5 years. 2009 elections saw an unprecedented
support for Congress with it alone winning 206 seats. UPA along with outside
support got 322 seats. 2008-09 had a GDP drop to 6.7% from 9.3% of 2007-08 but
there was nothing to stop Dr.Manmohan Singh from taking India into a new Golden
Era with more than 10% GDP growth every year. Sadly, 5 years later, India has
got stuck at below 5% GDP growth rate with highly volatile international market
controlling our economy.
What happened in UPA-2 when everything seemed to
be correct in UPA-1? UPA inherited growth of 8% to leave it back at 4.7% with
an exceptionally qualified economist as PM. The answer lies somewhere else.
Qualifications apart, Dr.Singh was chosen solely on the basis of his honesty in
adhering to whips of Godmother whom he gracefully addresses as Madamji.
The Madamji's and her National Advisory Council
audited files before it reached head of the ruling Govt. PM itself. So,
Dr.Singh had to work on only those things approved by his gracious Madamji. Let
us now have a view of Madamji's achievments then,
1. Industrial growth was at 7.3% in 2004 which
has come down to 0.35%.
2. Agricultural growth was at 10.8% which has
come down to 5%.
3. Trade deficit has gone from $13.7 billion to
$147 billion.
4. External debt has gone from $112 billion to
$426 billion.
5. Per capita debt has quadrupled from Rs. 4,800
in 2003-04 to Rs. 20,500 now.
6. CPI inflation has gone from 3.8% to 9.5%.
7. Short term debt from $4.4 billion to $92
billion
I have listed only a few economic indicators. How
would i start listing Scams? In fact, BJP campaigned in 2014 elections with A-Z
scams of UPA. Unhindered corruption, Policy Paralysis, Directionless diplomacy,
Fragile will, Border breaches, Ceasefire violations, Sexual
assaults,harassments,rapes, Soldiers dying in brutal ways and what not.
10 years of precious time has been lost where as
China has grown at more than 15% average GDP growth every year. How can we
compete with China who have nearly 8 times bigger economy than us? Time is
money. Time is of essence. If we fall behind and fall behind tragically with
less hopes of coming back, World's biggest Democracy would go down the history
as an example of humiliating failure. Does the most ancient civilzation of
Mother Earth deserve this?
“Life can only be understood backwards; but it
must be lived forwards.” ― Søren Kierkegaard
Let the bygones be bygones but let us learn from
the mistakes of past and move ahead with vigor and wisdom. Time has come to
work for our common goal. Time to materialize the long distant dream of Acche
Din.
Date : 11th, July 2014
Place : Bangalore
No comments:
Post a Comment