Few months ago with great pomp Congress appointed a committee under Lt.Gen. D.S.Hooda, to prepare a vision document on Indian security. Though surprising coming from Congress (a party which questioned the authenticity of successful Surgical strike), this was a good move. No doubt Lt.Gen Hooda would have some very constructive ideas on national security. Though Congress media used this step to almost discredit Narendra Modi for successful Surgical strike I was very interested to know the recommendations of this army veteran hoping some good points could actually be implemented irrespective of the Government that comes to power post May 23.
Congress consulted with various economists on their outrageous NYAY scheme. Congress just said, these economists agreed that the scheme was implementable. Though I’m always skeptical about the recommendations of economists as they always are product of the economist’s ideology rather than that of rational thinking, I still wanted to know their views on how this outrageous scheme would be implemented. This was all the more important as our Pappu, as usual, didn’t gave any details.
Congress consulted with small entrepreneurs to understand their issues. Their alleged biggest issue was GST. I have seen first hand the issues faced by entrepreneurs in GST filing. From the cumbersome procedure of filing 3 forms per month to a single form now GST filing has come a long way in getting simplified. No doubt there is still room for improvement. I was looking forward for the result of this consultations so as to understand Congress’s views on simplifying GST further.
There are studies which claim more than 70% of Indian graduates are not employable. Though Skill India aimed to address this issue, there are still so many unemployed youth in this country. When Congress consulted students I was excited to see their recommendations on this issue.
Unfortunately not a single one of my wishes came true when I saw Congress manifesto. Congress’s ill conceived ideas on national security, such as, dilution of AFSPA, unconditional talks with separatists, reduction of forces in Kashmir valley etc., did not come from Lt.Gen.Hooda’s vision document. Obviously an army veteran is never going to recommend steps which are harmful to national security. But my disappointment is that we are never going to know what were the Lt.Gen’s actual recommendations.
The economists who have advised Congress on Nyay, have clearly stated the scheme is not viable with current levels of taxation, fiscal deficit and inflation. All these 3 parameters need to increase to implement this scheme. Congress in its manifesto has clearly ignored their recommendations and have gone ahead further with another set of outrageous claims like huge increase in spending in Education, Healthcare and Defence. There is no mention on where this money comes from.
On GST they have just put in Pappu’s blabbering that they will bring single tax slab, taxing everything from milk to Mercedes at flat single rate. They have not even mentioned what that single rate would be. Though looking at their outrageous schemes it looks like it would be 18% making everyday necessities lot more expensive. Not a single point on how they can simplify filing further, an issue which actually helps small entrepreneur.
Not a single point to address the single most important issue of unemployability of Indian youth that may have come from Congress party’s consultations with students. Just some socialistic points of recruiting more people on Government payroll putting even more stress on the already huge salary bills that Government is paying today.
Looking at the manifesto, it is evident that the so called consultations by Congress party is just a sham. They never intended to include any point in the manifesto in the first place.
Congress is incapable of listening to constructive criticism as well. The result is the a document recycled using previous such documents of the party and some new points based on blabbering of the clown prince is released as a manifesto. My only suggestion to Congress is to stop this charade if you are not anyway using the recommendations of the consultations
