Elections of 2019 are remarkable in many ways it would first time a non-congress government be making an attempt to get reelected and it will also be an election where two different ideas of India are being put to test. One idea of “Sankalp and Sashakt” Bharat and a Bharat that looks up to Knight in the shining armor for all it problems (almighty government). Choice in front of voters is clearly between a confident India that can be world beater and India that still suffers from colonial hang over of low self-esteem and disgust towards its own native culture and capabilities. While I am not here to delve on past and criticize the earlier governments. I will make an attempt to highlight few changes that Modi led government has brought in to lay the platform to build more confident and capable India.
Transparency and Poverty alleviation through Reforms
Goods and Services Tax: Biggest reform that current regime has brought in is on taxation bringing in clarity to the multi layered taxation system. Earlier taxation system with multiple taxes across multiple states with no single system to tracking billing and invoicing system across various states, made it easy for various tax cheaters to bribe and beat the system. With new tax regime it is easier to track by linking the whole transactions through the entire value chain up until source. Implementation might have been shoddy but such large disruptions do take time to stabilize especially if we have reluctant end users. Biggest plus and take away with this reform it creates a level playing platform amongst all business owners and want to be entrepreneurs, there is no simple way to tweak or bribe the system to gain advantage over your competitors, additionally this makes India an attractive destination for investments
No Deals Government: Despite the accusations from various opposition parties that this government is pro corporate and of being more pro to few business houses. Biggest achievement of Modi government has been its dealing deadly blow to “Crony Capitalism” of UPA era and an end to power broker raj of Delhi, causing much chafe to lutyen Delhi media circles whose dislike for Modi is evident every day. Modi government started off this process through open auctions for all Natural resources like coal, spectrum etc..,. To deal with crony and dubious businesses which prop up just to swindle money It has also brought in stringent laws like Benami Act, Black Money law and it has closed down thousands of such fake companies dealing a deadly blow money lauders and power broker. At the same time through ‘insolvency and bankruptcy code’ it has ushered in much needed reform for Genuine business losses
Targeted poverty alleviation along with asset creation: It is election time fad to talk about poor and sufferings of poor like those movie stars who come out with amazing ideas of free health, free education to help poor and destroy the poverty films by pricing their movie tickets at Rs.200 (not free J). Coming back to serious issue of poverty alleviation the previous UPA embarked on Aadhar based subsidy programs but lacked seriousness or wiliness to build a robust mechanism to identify and benefit the actual poor. Current NDA regime through JAM (Jandhan, Aadhar and Mobile) strategy has been able to ensure that the state and center subsidies reach the poor that they were actually intended for, there is no middle man falsifying and siphoning up the benefits. This has certainly caused some heart burn to the middle men and free loaders who benefited heavily from such schemes and are now being made to actually work for living. As a Middle class tax payer we should be proud and happy about the fact that our tax money is benefiting the actual poor and not being siphoned off by lazy middle men
Enabling Rural India through “Gram sadak Yojana”, Toilet building, Ujwala yojana and helping the urban poor through Pradhan mantra awaas yojana. Other major achievements of Modi are Infrastructure push through a record highway, number of metro enabled cities, focus on health care through Ayushman Bharat and list continues. Number of these big ticket items to enable India both in urban and rural areas under Modi governments has been pushing India towards faster growing economy.
Many might question existence of such schemes in erstwhile regimes as well, however what is important to note is the delivery pace of these schemes and to top it all with no corruption and zero increase in our income taxes. Is there anything more that we need? Yes, certainly but in order to make use of this platform and build on this we need the current Modi government to continue for another term if not we endanger taking India back in time and our future generations will not forgive us.
So when you go out and vote in 2019 think about what kind of India you want to build a confident and powerful one or an India that looks up to Government to solve all its problems?
Lastly, one of out of context things.
People who say Modi works only for Ambani ’s and corporates, here is a point to ponder for a Man who has not benefited his own family members and has dedicated his life working 16 hours a day for past so many years for “Bharat Mata“. What urge does he have to help nobody like Amabani or Adani?
Modi is Yogi who is dedicated to serve Ma Bharati like a true Swayam Sevak, this is hard to fathom for people used to serve and support family based parties.
