Two years, too many betrayals

Sometimes in the heat of political discourse, the real issue is sidelined. The footnote becomes a headline. The marginal begins the central discourse. The substance is marginalised. This is not unusual given the pressure of generating breaking news. Information becomes packaged to suit a preconceived notion of what constitutes news value. Unfortunately, the focus is lost on the real story.

I say this in the context of the debate in some sections of the media on what Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar’s future plans are. The truth is that he has made one essential and central point: All forces opposed to the Bharatiya Janata Party-Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh combine need to begin the process of coming together on the basis of a cohesive, sustainable and effective common programme. At this point, this coming together need not necessarily imply a merger or an alliance. What he is talking about is a realignment of political forces based on a strategic exploration of political possibilities that can, in the future, lead to a politically and ideologically efficacious critical mass capable of defeating the BJP.

Such a call has been made after a careful and detailed analysis of the current situation, which has been spelt out with blunt clarity in the resolution of the Janata Dal (United)’s national council meeting held in Patna on April 23. It is abundantly clear that the BJP government that came to power with an overwhelming majority has failed to live up to the expectations of the people. It has wilfully and blatantly betrayed the promises it made to the people of India during the poll campaign of 2014, be it on the question of black money, the increase in minimum support price (MSP) for farmers or the creation of jobs.

At the same time, no government since Independence has tolerated, encouraged or deliberately provoked so much social divisiveness. From artificially simulated hate campaigns like “ghar wapsi”, “love jihad”, “beef politics”, to incendiary statements by BJP leaders and the use of pseudo-nationalism to suppress freedom of expression, a conscious attempt has been made to divide society. The result is a pervasive atmosphere in the country of social instability and disharmony that directly militates against the plural and composite tehzeeb of our civilisation as guaranteed by the Constitution.

Perhaps the biggest disappointment of this government has been on the economic front. Although the BJP claims on the basis of contested figures that the overall gross domestic product is around seven per cent, in almost no sector is this growth visible. Exports have fallen for 15 months in a row and are now down by over 13 per cent. Industrial production is contracting. Investments in the first eight months of 2015 were down by 30 per cent compared to the year before. Net sales of firms have fallen by around six per cent. The banking sector is a mess with non-performing assets (NPAs) over '5 lakh crore. Retail price inflation, especially food inflation, is worrying. This dismal performance has unfolded in spite of a favourable environment of drastic fall in international crude prices.

The agricultural sector has been the worst victim of this neglect. Last year agricultural growth plummeted to a record low of 0.02 per cent. The farming sector is in the grip of an unprecedented crisis. Every half an hour a farmer is reportedly committing suicide. For two successive years the country is facing drought. But in spite of this, budgetary allocation to agriculture is inadequate, input costs for farmers have increased, MSPs have not been raised as promised, fertiliser subsidies have been reduced, irrigation budgets slashed and Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) payments reduced and delayed.

The greatest disappointment for the young in India has been in the sector of jobs. The BJP had promised the creation of two crore jobs. However, latest government data shows that job creation in the manufacturing and export sectors fell by a net 43,000 last year which is the worst performance in six years. Only 135,000 jobs were created in 2015 in the key sectors of textiles, leather, metals, automobiles, gems, jewellery, transport and information technology, which is 67 per cent lower than the 421,000 jobs that were added in 2014. In fact, the real reason behind the widespread agitations for reservation by Patidars in Gujarat, Jats in Haryana, Kapus in Andhra Pradesh and Marathas in Maharashtra is economic decline and severe shortage of jobs.

Another slogan coined by the BJP was of cooperative federalism. But its actions in Arunachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand have made a mockery of what this term should mean and has revived the misuse of Article 356. The entire canvas of Centre-state relations is being seen only from the partisan prism of the interests of the Centre.

The foreign policy of the BJP government has been equally disappointing. Foreign policy is not an event management exercise. It requires carefully coordinated strategic planning. Nowhere is this absence of strategic planning more in evidence than in our neighbourhood, where our relations with Pakistan are in shambles, while Nepal, too, has suffered from gross strategic neglect.

There is an Urdu saying: Na khuda hi mila, na visal-e-sanam (Neither God nor the beloved was obtained). The BJP government has neither delivered on its governance promises nor on its slogan of “Sabka saath, sabka vikas”. The appeal by Mr Kumar to all political forces that oppose the BJP-RSS to begin the process of forging strategic solidarity must be seen in this context. To conflate this appeal with ambitions to be Prime Minister is both mischievous and inaccurate. While others may have graciously spoken in praise of him, Mr Kumar has himself never expressed any such aspiration. His appeal for greater Opposition unity is based on clinical analysis, ideological clarity, pragmatic politics and strategic anticipatory planning, not subjectivity.

Author-diplomat Pavan K. Varma is a Rajya Sabha member representing JD(U)