General Elections 2014; Interesting battle lies ahead

You know, an election is just around the corner when the discussion during the dinner turns into a political debate every other day with your family members. The campaign trail has already begun for the political parties with candidates being announced, political deals being made and rallies being organized all around the country. The country is just 10 days away from the first phase of polling with 81.45 crore citizens being eligible to vote this time around. Voters are now more informed than before and certainly the election issues have seen a shift from the traditional caste based vote bank politics to Corruption, Inflation and Governance issues.

There are the same old two big national players along with some regional parties but a new competitor in the form of the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) has added spice to this. Their actions might not sound convincing to everyone but one cannot ignore their popularity especially with the prevailing anti-corruption sentiment in the country. They have without any doubt changed the political narrative of this nation. And now suddenly, everyone is trying to reach to ‘aam aadmi’ by projecting themselves as honest and efficient. And all the talk of Third Front will disappear once the results are announced. These regional parties will then indulge in horse trading with the main ones.

There is a strong anti-Congress sentiment in the country with the grand old party of India struggling to fight the elections in the right earnest. They have failed to deliver and then they again turn back to promises. They are like those lazy kids who fail in the exams every time they appear and ask for grace marks from their teachers. The unfulfilled promises, with a PM which is rarely being seen speaking or accepting mistakes and a scam tainted tenure at the helm are the only things with which this government will be remembered for. Rahul Gandhi has never shown inclination to take a leadership role and this will only hurt the party’s chances in elections. The spin doctors of the Congress have tried to put him as the face of anti-corruption but given the track of the government which his party leads; this is a cruel joke or sheer ignorance.

The politician who has been targeted the most and the one who inspires outright adulation or instant hate amongst the electorate is the PM face of the BJP backed NDA government looks confident and determined to bring back the NDA into power. His claims of development have been put to intense scrutiny but he has delivered in Gujarat. Business and Industry leaders see a lot of promise and hope in him. His image of being the ‘vikas purush’ has gained traction in the country particularly among the youth. Any young, aspirational Indian would like to hear more about employment, growth and development than riots or different definitions of secularism.

Indian political scene has changed quite considerably from the politics of caste and ideology to horse trading to criminalization of politics to coalition politics and not to mention corruption which goes hand in hand with all of those. But this time the landscape has changed a bit and the AAP must be given credit for making corruption as the election issue and to take plunge to cleanse politics. It has forced other parties to bring about some morality into their working style. As a result more and more parties are now avoiding candidates with a criminal background; however winnable they may be. AAP has got people involved in politics and this has led to a more informed voter choice and opinion. 

Caste based politics or that of minority is outdated. In this election Modi has brought development as an election issue which is in consonance with the changing India. Promises, sops and freebies, minority appeasement policies are common during election time. But people have self pride, and they neither want anything free nor pitied; even poor work as rag pickers to make a living. People have now moved on, leaving behind the past, with common demands for jobs, security, housing and healthcare for better quality of life, and education for children's future.

For all this to happen, there is a need for awareness amongst the citizens to exercise their right to vote. The middle class is increasingly cynical of the electoral process. One vote is just a drop in this vast ocean so why do people bother to vote at all? But still an ordinary citizen continues to vote may be, that is more out of hope than conviction.

Will this election be the change which we desperately want or are we still waiting?

Why the Food Security Bill has serious implications on our economy.

The recently passed food security bill in Loksabha is been termed as a game changer for UPA in 2014 general elections. The bill aims to provide food grains to eligible households at subsidized prices and it will cater to the 75% of the rural population and 50% of the population residing in the cities. Once implemented, it will cover two thirds of the population.

The bill requires 75 million tonnes of rice and wheat. Our current production stands at 67 million tonnes so a further 8 million tonnes need to be procured to foot the two thirds of the population as envisaged earlier. This presents an interesting picture because for the last 2-3 years the rain gods have been very kind to us and so a figure of 67 million tonnes of rice and wheat was achieved. What if there is a poor monsoon? From where we will get those additional 8 million tonnes? The most shocking aspect of the bill is that it will obtain the supplies from small and marginal farmers and most of the beneficiaries are again those farmers so the government will give those farmers rice and grains at subsidized prices. This is crazy.

Another reservation which I have about this is that it takes back in time because after 1991 reforms this measure is more of a socialist one. The concept of socialism is a flawed one and in these times of slow growth, widening fiscal deficit, free fall of our currency our economy is going to suffer because of this. The bill looks flawed especially looking at its logistical provisions and it was obvious from the fact that 300 amendments were suggested by different parties.  

And the bill will cost our country a whopping Rs 1.23 lakh crore at a time when our economy is in crisis. This populist scheme will add to the fiscal problems which we’ve been facing for the last few years. There would be more administrative problems and the corruption which goes hand in hand with any scheme of this Government. The food subsidies will rise once again and that would pose problems to the economic scene. Sonia Gandhi said during Loksabha that we have to get this done irrespective of whether we can do it or not. This shows only one thing; vote bank politics and the timing of the bill is a testimony to it. The present government is in serious danger of losing the elections and at this moment a scheme of such scale is bound to get messed up, paving the way for leakages and corruption. Such is wrong timing of the bill that our PM has no right to call himself an economist. He remains a rubber stamp of National Advisory Council’s chairperson.

In 2009, the UPA waived 60,000 crore loans from farmers and that compounded our problems and now this food security bill is again a tool to just fool the farmers and the rural people to gain political edge. The much touted MNREGA scheme for the rural youth has been a failure and it costs our country a bomb. The present government has a history of targeting rural population and manipulating them with their unsubstantiated claims but this time the food security bill would also be used to hide their failures.