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How PM Modi is trying to appropriate India's success story with '48 months versus 48 years'

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Sadhavi Khosla
Sadhavi KhoslaJun 01, 2018 | 18:48

How PM Modi is trying to appropriate India's success story with '48 months versus 48 years'

Dear Modiji,

Congratulations on your four-year-long stint as India’s prime minister. Your and your party’s glee is quite noticeable. So, when you are busy in the grand celebrations, here’s a letter to help you gather some thoughts on the exciting tagline that your party has come up with to mark its fourth anniversary “48 months versus 48 years”.

Although the Congress has had a momentous 56-year regime, you are bombarding the nation with BJP’s achievements in the past 48 months pitting them against those 48 years of Congress that you have conveniently taken out of the 56 years that the Congress party gave to the country.

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Fake celebrations: Your and your party’s glee is quite noticeable.

Just to remind you, a few days ago, I shared my views on how your government’s so-called achievements have resulted in the de facto shirking of your “achhe din” narrative. Now that you are celebrating the very same achievements, lauding the hollow promises you made before coming into office, and grilling Congress about its regime, this piece will help you emphatically see the reality as it is.

118 years of Sacche Din

Over one hundred and thirty-two years ago, amid the haunting British rule, the Congress was formed in 1885, albeit not as a political party — but as a nationalist movement. It is not easy to commit to paper the achievements of a movement that led India to its Independence — and achievements that later on transformed the very same movement into India’s dominant political party, which remained so for years.

But, to help you get your facts straight, here are some of the many notable achievements that the Congress made during its regime in the nation.

Jawaharlal Nehru’s era

A key pillar of India’s freedom struggle, Jawaharlal Nehru may be ridiculed by the right-wing brigade today, but he was a man of courage — for, he inherited a mess. Soon after the country got its much-coveted Independence from the grisly British rule, India was in crisis.

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The British may have left India, but it was left with several nemeses to fight with: the Partition, followed by a wave of communal unrest; the difficult task of rehabilitation of nearly six million refugees from Pakistan; the first Kashmir war; Mahatma Gandhi’s assassination; the poverty rate of 70 per cent; the challenge to establish a democracy; the problem of caste divides; the integration of the 500-odd princely states into India; and many more.

But Jawaharlal Nehru wasn’t even a bit low-spirited. He toiled hard, day and night — trying his best to help the country get out of the woods.

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The man and his follwers: Nehru envisaged an independent, industrially advanced nation with a strong foundation of infrastructure.

Modi ji, please note some of Nehru’s prominent achievements that helped the country bounce back as a strong economy shortly after independence:

• Making of modern India: Nehru, the "architect of modern India", laid the stepping stone for the foundation of country’s premier institutions of higher learning, including the IIMs, the NITs, the IITs, the NID, and AIIMS, along with others.

It was during his tenure that India got its first large-scale atomic energy nuclear reactor, Apsara, and successfully tested its first rocket from Thumba. Additionally, the National Defence Academy (NDA), the UTI, the LIC, the Indian Statistical Institute (ISI), the Atomic Energy Commission (the precursor to ISRO), the Indian National Committee for Space Research were also founded during his time.

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He also included free and compulsory primary education to all children in the five-year plans.

• Constitution of India: The supreme law of India, the Constitution of India, was adopted on January 26, 1950, during Jawaharlal Nehru’s era.

• Integration of princely states into India: Over 500 princely states acceded to India under the guidance of Sardar Patel and VP Menon, after Nehru gave Sardar Patel a free rein to press on the task of political integration.

• White Revolution: India’s White Revolution, which turned the country into the world’s largest producer of milk and milk products, was another achievement of his era.

• Industry and infrastructure: Pandit Nehru envisaged an independent, industrially advanced nation with a strong foundation of infrastructure. During his tenure, several roads, dams, steel, and power plants were set up. Also, the generation of hydroelectricity saw a major boost during his time.

• Culture: Nehru’s era also gave us the National Museum and India’s national academy of fine arts – the Lalit Kala Akademi.

• Economy: Nehru advocated for a mixed economy with a focus on the protection of civil liberties and import substitution industrialisation to take the nation towards development and modernisation.

• Agriculture: Several agrarian reforms shaped the agricultural sector during Nehru’s era. Large dams were constructed, use of fertilisers was encouraged, irrigation works were conducted, and canals were built to increase the agricultural production of the nation post-independence. Hope you are making notes, Modi ji.

Indira Gandhi’s era

Following in her father’s footsteps, Indira Gandhi too didn’t flinch. The Indo-Pakistani War of 1965 had left a distressed economy for Indira to strengthen, followed by a drought-induced food crisis that started to engulf the nation. However, Indira, being the powerful leader that she was, made the grade and gave the country one of its globally renowned political eras.

• Liberation of Bangladesh: Indira Gandhi’s firm and extensive diplomatic, economic, and military support to the Bangladesh movement led to the independence of Bangladesh, and India’s decisive victory over Pakistan in the Bangladesh liberation war is praised as one of Indira’s biggest achievements.

• Annexation of Sikkim as an Indian state: In 1975, Indira Gandhi secured Sikkim’s merger into India Sikkim, through a referendum.

• Nationalisation: From nationalising 14 major commercial banks in 1969 to nationalising the coal, steel, copper, refining, cotton textiles and insurance industries in the later years, Indira Gandhi’s nationalisation policy to accelerate the country’s economic growth became a key milestone of her era.

• Green Revolution: Giving the Green Revolution strategy a fresh impetus, Indira Gandhi drove the nation to self-sufficiency in food and transformed it from a nation which was heavily reliant on imported grains to a nation with food security.

• Abolishment of privy purses: Indira also abolished the privy purses (payments) that were being made to the former rulers of the princely states. With a view to exercise equal rights for all citizens and to reduce the government’s revenue deficit, the abolishment of the privy purses was passed as the 26th Amendment to the Constitution of India.

Rajiv Gandhi’s era

Respected PM, you may find it hard to believe, but the truth is that it was Rajiv Gandhi who "actually" heralded digitisation and stirred a technology and communication revolution in the country.

A true visionary that he was, Rajiv Gandhi changed the face of India in the 1980s — leading it to the path of global acknowledgement and ‘real’ economic and social development.

• Technology: Rajiv Gandhi brought computers to the nation at a time when it was still an agricultural country. It was Rajiv’s computer revolution that set the pace of lifting the then poverty-stricken country, pushing it towards a modern and tech-savvy India.

• Telecom Revolution: Rajiv Gandhi believed that technology is an incredible social leveller. Together with Sam Pitroda, he spread telecom to every nook and corner of the nation with the help of the Center for Development of Telematics (C-DOT). Besides, it was during his time in office that public sector telecom companies MTNL and VSNL were established to foster the growth of the country’s telecom sector.

• Research and development: Rajiv Gandhi also laid special emphasis on the country’s Research & Development and encouraged technological advancement to reduce dependence on imported technology.

• Liberalisation: By announcing a new industrial policy with the proposal to de-license, Rajiv Gandhi laid the foundation for liberalisation in the country and opened the economy – which is one of the biggest achievements of the Congress rule.

• Panchayati Raj: By bringing democracy to the grassroots and introducing 33 percent reservation for women in Panchayati Raj, Rajiv reformed the country’s Panchayat system which has been another milestone of his government.

• Lowering the voting age from 21 to 18 years: To make the country’s youth stakeholder in the political process, it was Rajiv Gandhi who recommended lowering the voting age from 21 years to 18 years, which was done in 1989.

PV Narasimha Rao’s era

The list of Congress achievements could never be complete without the mention of India’s ninth Prime Minister, PV Narasimha Rao. Often addressed as the “father of Indian economic reforms”, his prime ministership pioneered a major economic transformation in the country.

• Economic reforms: Rao introduced several reforms that cut government regulations and red tape, abandoned subsidies and fixed prices, privatised state-run industries, abolished the Controller of Capital Issues, introduced the SEBI Act of 1992 and the Security Laws (Amendment), and incorporated the National Stock Exchange (NSE). Along with the then finance minister Manmohan Singh, Narasimha Rao lifted the economy out of the balance of payments crisis and steered the country to economic development.

• Look East Policy: To help India get recognised as a regional power in the ASEAN, Rao introduced India’s Look East policy in 1991.

• Dismantling of license raj: It was during Rao’s tenure that the government of India initiated a liberalisation policy and dismantled the licence raj, leading to substantial economic growth.

• Globalisation: Narasimha Rao and Manmohan Singh fostered the economy by enabling free trade through globalisation, which saw the advent of multinational corporations in India – helping the country in generating new jobs and breaking the shackles of poverty to a great extent.

Manmohan Singh’s era

One of the greatest economists in Indian history, Manmohan Singh’s tenure as the country’s prime minister left a legacy of achievements. Modi ji, you might have jibed at Dr Singh many times in the past, but for now, please get a load of this simple man’s incredible feats.  

• Indo-US nuclear deal: Signed by Singh and the then US president George W Bush, the 2005 India-US nuclear deal was a landmark agreement made during Manmohan Singh’s regime that helped India garner global attention as a nuclear weapons power, for the first time in Indian history.

• MNREGA: Launched in 2006, the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) aimed to provide at least 100 days of wage employment in a financial year to every household with adult members involved in unskilled manual work.

• Economic growth: Another notable achievement during the tenure of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh is the average economic growth of 7.7 per cent that the country enjoyed despite two global slowdowns — and that is no ordinary feat. Don’t you agree, Modi ji?

• Right to Information Act, 2005: The 2005 Right to Information Act was introduced during Singh’s regime to promote transparency and accountability in the nation by empowering the citizens to request information from a public authority.

• Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act, 2009: Another watershed event that took place during Singh’s prime ministership was the introduction of the Right to Education Act (RTE) which ensured that every Indian child, between the age of six and 14 years, will receive free and compulsory education.

While these accomplishments are not even 10 per cent of what Congress did for the nation, I do realise that there is a gap which could have been fulfilled by the party. The Congress could have done much more in several areas, but discrediting the party for its tangible achievements is not justifiable.

Mr Modi, when you take potshots at the Congress, babbling on about its "failures", please concede that you inherited a progressive nation from the Congress. You didn’t have to deal with the aftermaths of the horrendous British rule and the ensuing Partition, or even a poverty-stricken country bounded by global economic slowdowns.

Still, you haven’t been able to fulfil even half of your electoral promises.

So, whenever you and your party’s supporters decide to come out of the hoopla of self-praise, I really hope that during such a blessed time, this list will come in handy to inspire you to aim for "real" achievements — not for make-believe achievements that remain just on paper.

Last updated: June 01, 2018 | 18:48
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