363 million Indians: What Modi forgot, Rahul Gandhi remembered!

It is good to see India discussing the finer arithmetic of funding of the landmark Minimum Income Guarantee (MIG) scheme announced by Congress president Rahul Gandhi just a few days ago. Expectedly, it has created ripples, with policy makers and economists doing a deep dive on its potential intricacies, pitfalls, limitations and budgetary implications. We are talking economy, paradoxically, at a time when the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi is upping the communal temperature by repeatedly harping on the Ram Mandir issue (matter is sub-judice as it is in the Supreme Court) and the Citizenship Amendment Bill which has resulted in massive protests in the Northeast.

Not to mention, a senior BJP Cabinet Minister - Anant Hegde - who made the repugnant remark that “anyone” (read Muslim) touching a Hindu woman will have his hand amputated. The world is watching India closely, as evidenced by a report that the US Director of National Intelligence, Dan Coats, has apparently submitted to the US Senate. I quote “Parliamentary elections in India increase the possibility of communal violence if Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s BJP stresses Hindu nationalist themes. BJP’s policies during Modi’s first term have deepened communal tensions”. And “Its state leaders might view a Hindu nationalist campaign as a signal to incite low-level violence to animate their supporters”. It’s a damning indictment of the politics of religious polarisation which is being flagrantly promoted by a viscerally bigoted RSS and the BJP. Rahul Gandhi is, however, changing the narrative.

Narendra Modi sold pipe dreams of a liberalised economy, reforming institutions to make them more people-centric, making government transparent and ensuring sustainable growth policies that would concomitantly alleviate poverty. Like a snake-oil salesman, Modi sold promises that were at their core postiche (2 crore jobs per year, ₹15 lakh black money in every bank account and 50% MSP over cost of production to farmers).

Even if I were to invoke my charitable disposition, I would give the government at best a D+, though I am tempted to instinctively give it an F grade. What we have seen is diametrically opposite; even as I write, three esteemed members of the National Statistics Commission have quit because the government has tried to suppress dismal jobs data (joblessness is reported to be at a staggering 45-year high) by indulging in deliberate delays in publishing the report.

Opaqueness rules, trust in official data has diminished to such an extent that we are being compared to unscrupulous Chinese statistics, 1% of Indians own 60% of its aggregate wealth and the poor have been devastated on account of the state’s contemptuous disinterestedness of their problems. This is why the BJP is trying to stir the communal cauldron with a view to sparking sporadic conflagrations across the country to keep their divisive Hindutva agenda alive.

There is enough empirical evidence to prove that an India, divided on religious propaganda and sectarian distrust, helps BJP consolidate the majority community votes. This is Modi’s game plan. Rahul Gandhi, with his MIG announcement, may have completely upset the BJP’s applecart because poverty is caste-neutral and religion-agnostic. Human suffering is not determined by congenital attributes. The pangs of hunger cause the same excruciating pain to a Hindu as it does to a Muslim, or, for that matter, a Christian, a Sikh, a Parsi, a Jain or a Buddhist.

The latter occurred on account of a planned effort to ameliorate the downtrodden via MGNREGA, national farm loan waiver, Food Security Act, Right to Education, etc. MIG is consistent with this ideological anchorage of the Congress. There is no alternative to the inclusive development model for India as envisaged by the Congress.

India has seen income inequality getting exacerbated further under Modi. Modi rarely mentions concerns over our appalling ranking in Human Development Index, Global Hunger Index, Gender Equality Index, et al as he has essentially neglected them. They reflect the real quality of life of an average Indian. Rahul Gandhi has realised that Modi has pushed the forbearance of the poor, farmers and the middle class too far. GDP, Ease of Doing Business, FDI, market capitalization, however, make for more attractive headlines. It is a question of priorities. It is time to reset and reboot the national agenda. MIG is a step forward in that direction.

Modi’s discredited five years will be remembered among other spectacular catastrophes for the disastrous Demonetisation exercise and unrestrained crony capitalism. People are aware of the red carpet farewell given to Vijay Mallya, Nirav “Chhota” Modi and Mehul “Bhai” Choksi. The blatant favouritism demonstrated towards Anil Ambani on the Rafale Scam stinks, as does the concealed list of big wilful defaulters who have swindled taxpayers’ money running into billions of dollars from India’s public sector banks.

The icing on the cake is the BJP’s chicanery in amassing huge electoral funds through the duplicitous electoral bonds, whereby shady, illegal contributions can be easily made while keeping the donors identity anonymous. The poor of India are mostly unaware of all this as large (fortunately, not all) sections of India’s sycophantic mainstream media have shamelessly sung Modi’s praise. It is time to restore parity, and recalibrate resource allocations in favour of those who need it the most. Hence, the need for MIG.

In Rahul Gandhi’s vision and the Congress blueprint, ignoring 363 million poor of India, while you are yourself suited–booted in Davos, busy making grandiloquent claims of being the world’s fastest growing economy, is akin to fooling yourself. Not anymore.