Dr. Ashwani Mahajan
In the recently held State elections the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) formed governments in three of the four big states, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh, and Congress won in only one state, Telangana. Political analysts are analyzing the reasons for this victory by BJP. BJP has often been raising issues of Congress Party’s communal vote bank politics, corruption, dynasty politics etc. in the elections. Issues like construction of Ram temple, abolition of Article 370, communal violence, especially like ‘sar tan se juda’, were widely discussed. But history is witness to the fact that even though these issues are important, if a party or the Government does not work for the welfare of the people, then they will be summarily rejected . In terms of vote ratio, BJP got 48.6 percent votes in Madhya Pradesh, 41.7 percent in Rajasthan and 46.3 percent in Chhattisgarh, and it shows that the people are satisfied with the party’s Central Government schemes and their achievements and hence want BJP Government. Obviously the public is also sensitive about dynasty politics, corruption and communal violence and wants the establishment of healthy and developmental politics in the country. People also don’t want to let the economic and social environment of the country vitiated due to vote bank politics.
Dream of Becoming a Developed Nation
The common people of India were living with the down feeling that India is a poor country, which cannot compete with the immense wealth, developed infrastructure, high income and high standard of living of the rich countries. It may take us many centuries to reach their level. In 2014, India’s economy was among the five most fragile economies, facing the tragedy of declining investment and continuously declining growth rate. But in less than 10 years, India has moved from the tenth to the fifth largest economy of the world; and in less than three years from now, it is moving rapidly towards becoming the third largest economy. Today India has also become the fastest growing economy in the world. In such a situation, Prime Minister Narendra Modi has given new wings to the aspirations of the common people of the country by pledging to become a developed nation before the completion of the first 100 years of independence.
It is natural that in view of these aspirations, the people of the country have expressed their confidence in the leadership of BJP, an example of which was seen in the recent elections.
Freebies Rejected
For some time now, efforts have been made by Governments and political parties in some states to capture power on the basis of freebies. They also seem to be getting some success. There is a flurry of free schemes by the Aam Aadmi Party and its Governments in Delhi and Punjab. On the other hand, similar free schemes are running in large numbers in Telangana and Andhra Pradesh. The important thing is that these provincial governments are severely lacking sufficient funds to run these schemes. Due to which, on the one hand, they are drowning into huge debt and on the other hand, they are unable to spend on essential services like education, health and other schemes that empower the common people.
In these elections also, parties made many announcements of these free schemes. Apart from waiving off the loans of farmers in Madhya Pradesh, the Congress party also announced free electricity, gas cylinder subsidy, Rs 1500 per month to women, Rs 3000 unemployment allowance to youth, and many other free schemes. Similarly, in Rajasthan, the Congress government was already running schemes like smartphones to women, subsidised LPG cylinders, free medical insurance for treatment up to Rs 25 lakh, free food packets to one crore families etc. In this election, along with the earlier free schemes, free laptop, free electricity etc. were also announced.
Although Prime Minister Narendra Modi has been criticising these free schemes and termed them as distribution of ‘Revadis’, yet the BJP and its Governments have run many free schemes, in which cheap cylinders are provided to Ujjwala beneficiaries and the common man. Announcement of giving free scooter to girls after passing 12th class in Rajasthan etc. is also included. But it is also true that BJP has always refrained in announcing free electricity, free water and free travel etc. But the important thing is that despite distributing Revadis and announcement of new Revadis, Congress could not win in Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh and BJP has captured the support of the people of these states.
Beginning of a New Welfare State
Till now, distribution of money through employment schemes, free or cheap electricity and water, subsidy on petrol, diesel and gas, cheap ration, Government expenditure on education and health etc. were considered to be the essence of a welfare state. But over the last 9 years, the definition of welfare state itself has changed and seems to be improving, which has also received public support.
Firstly, there has been an attempt to ensure the genuineness of expenditure on the housing scheme, by using technology, in a unique housing scheme. In just a few years, about 3 crore houses have been constructed, for which Rs 5 lakh crore was given by the Central Government and Rs 15 lakh crore was spent by the beneficiaries themselves, who built better houses for themselves in rural and urban areas; and started enjoying a respectable life. Construction of one crore additional houses is also in various stages.
Under the Ujjwala scheme, 10 crore poor women were given free LPG connections and later those poor women got cylinders refilled, at their own expense. Today, on an average, Ujjwala beneficiaries get more than three cylinders filled in a year. This has protected their health and also saved time.
By providing electricity to almost all the villages in the country, not only has the standard of living improved but government has also been successful in taking the communication and internet revolution across the country.
The target of providing tap water to all the houses is almost achieved, due to which women do not have to go from far of places, to fetch water, which is saving their time, which they can utilise for productive purposes.
Construction of toilets in every house has freed us from the curse of open defecation, pictures of which foreigners often used, to show India as a backward nation. Women are living with esteem today.
Improvement in primary care and most importantly free treatment up to Rs 5 lakh under Ayushman Yojana is proving to be a boon for the less resourceful people. If seen, all these schemes are for the targeted beneficiaries. Till now these beneficiaries were deprived of these facilities and earlier political parties used to garner their votes on the pretext of eradicating their poverty, deprivation and unemployment. But now these beneficiaries have got relief from these deprivations to a great extent with the help of the Government and their own efforts in the last 9-10 years. Perhaps the voters are liking the new incarnation of the welfare state more than the free Revadi scheme of other political parties. According to the United Nations Development Program (UNDP), in just five years from 2015-16 to 2019-21, the index of multidimensional poverty has decreased from 0.122 to just 0.69. In these five years, approximately 14 crore additional people have come out of poverty, and have tasted real freedom from poverty.
Today, the changing circumstances are giving birth to new dimensions to politics in the country, and the country is moving towards becoming a developed country by 2047, free from poverty, unemployment and deprivation. But if voters get influenced by free schemes, opportunistic polity will gain at the cost of the real development of the nation.
(The author is Professor, PGDAV College, University of Delhi )
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