BJP’s 100 ‘achche’ days – courtesy UPA

The BJP is praising itself for the first 100 days’ performance of the Modi government. By coincidence the first quarter GDP figure rose to 5.7 per cent, its highest in the previous ten quarters. The government was quick to pounce on it and drummed it up as a sure sign of its success. Addressing a press conference in New Delhi, Finance and Defence minister Arun Jaitley said the growth would be much higher in the coming days because of the steps “we have taken.” A day earlier at a newspaper ‘adda’ in Mumbai’s Taj Hotel he had declared that “achché din or good days” were already there. Jaitley claimed that there were enough food stocks in the country though inflation remained a cause for worry. And the press obediently echoed those claims. But Jaitley failed to mention who built up those food stocks and who had put the economy on a sound track which was now beginning to show encouraging results. Congress president Sonia Gandhi has been quick to remind the new government that it is stealing Congress policies. It was showcasing UPA programmes and claiming as its own. In a reference to Modi government’s “Swachch Bharat” slogan, she asked: ” Who started Nirmal Bharat Abhiyan in every village? Who made construction of toilets as part of MGNAREGA?” Jaitley while crowing about growth and success failed to remind himself and the general public that the achievements of the first quarter , first half-year or even a full year are the result of work done during the previous year or years and not the result of waving of some magic wand by new occupants of the seats of power. Congress leader P. Chidmbaram rightly pointed out that the UPA government deserved credit for the good economic growth that the country was now witnessing. He said that growth in the first 100 days or quarter was the result of the steps taken by the UPA in the previous year before the Modi government came to power. Clearly the Modi government is reaping the harvest of the outgoing Congress –led UPA government’s good work, and long may it go on reaping that harvest. After all it is all for the common benefit of the country despite the BJP’s pre -election tirade of rubbishing everything done by the UPA. It would do BJP no harm if it could give the Congress ‘devil’ its due. Even the groundwork for Prime Minister Modi’s Japan visit had been laid by the UPA government. Projects like the bullet train from Ahmedabad to Bombay had already been negotiated with Japan by the UPA government. Pilgrim trains to Katra for Vaishno Devi shrine in Kashmir or to Char Dham in Uttrakhand had been readied by the UPA. The BJP has only waved the hari jhandi or green signal ! Two sectors where the BJP is blowing its trumpet too loud are the so-called public-private –partnership or PPP development model and open gate policy on FDI. As with FDI, the home grown private investor is also driven by profit motive. The experience so far has been rather less than inspirational. Quite the contrary. The experience of Britain, the country which led with its Thatcherite export model, has shown that the confidence in the PPP strategy has been misplaced. There is widespread talk of re-nationalising the railways in Britain. Privatisation is no longer thought to be the panacea of all shortcomings. The PPP model instead has become the vehicle of private profit at public cost. It is common knowledge that the so-called private investment is nothing like what it is advertised to be. The private investment funds are in fact no more than easy loans from public banks. The loans are then trotted out as private funds to which more money is added directly from the government . Once the partnership business starts, very often costs escalate beyond control, forcing the public sector to rescue the operation from collapse. The Indian experience is no different . Perhaps worse. The so-called private investor is also the bank loan defaulter. The huge NPAs or non-performing assets of Indian banks are an ever bloating testament to that manipulation by vast section of private investors. The public sufferings caused by the rise and fall of Mallya’s UB and Kingfisher Airline and Sahara group are a warning enough. The government’s headlong jump for Foreign Direct Investment to speed up growth and development has been hailed in certain quarters. The Budget announcement to raise FDI limit from 26 per cent to 49 per cent in defence and insurance sectors has naturally pleased the foreign and national business groups. But the underlying security concerns in the defence sector cannot be underestimated. Even in non-defence sectors the FDI’s strong presence can have a destabilising impact on national economy. The native private players’ ability to resist temptations offered by the foreign investors could be put under severe pressure to the point of capitulation. After all the foreign investor’s driving motive is to make profit and increase his country’s influence in the recipient country’s economy and polity. ............................................................................................................................................