Promises galore but when will we see them?

In his speech to mark the 75th Independence Day from the ramparts of Red Fort on Monday, PM Modi laid out a five-pronged ‘Panch Pran’ target for the next 25 years, which include shedding the colonial mindset and taking pride in our legacy. He also made an impassioned call to defeat nepotism and corruption, which have been eating away at the vitals of Indian society.

The PM stressed on the need to stop insulting women in speech and conduct to which some women activists did not take kindly considering the treatment they have been meted out in society over the decades.

There have been assurances galore ever since the BJP[1]led NDA swept to power in 2014 and the ruling dispensation has had a full eight years to fulfill these promises and wipe the tear from every Indian’s eyes. Has that really happened even in small measure? Has the lot of the common Indian improved in any significant manner to make them proudly claim that there is a Government in Delhi which cares for them?

Statistics can be beguiling but they paint a really sorry picture about the state of the Indian masses particularly those on the lower rungs. Whatever may be the meal schemes envisaged to improve the nourishment levels of our kids, India still has 195.9 million of the 821 million undernourished people in the world. There are 19 crore people in the country who go to sleep on an empty stomach every night. And what’s more disconcerting is the fact that 4,500 children born in this country, die every day under the age of five years due to hunger and malnutrition.

The sordid picture does not stop here. Obnoxious practices like manual scavenging continue unhindered in several parts of the nation even killing those who descend into these hell holes only to be suffocated. This despite the fact that scavenging was banned nearly a decade ago. And what about jobs? A CMIE report says that India’s total employment fell by 13 million in June, 2022 with a decline of 8 million jobs in rural India. The picture is no better in cities where 2.5 million salaried jobs were lost leaving the urban landscape looking as bleak as ever.

Despite all that talk about socialism, India is still one of the most unequal countries. The World Inequality report for the year 2022 says that the top ten per cent of people in the country hold 57 per cent of the national income. As for the remaining ninety per cent—the less said, the better. Are we losing sight of our basic priorities in our rush to gain a foothold in the developed world? Can a nation boast of affluence and power unless its teeming millions too have access to the basic necessities of life? Can we close our eyes to the sordid poverty in the countryside where every day is still a struggle for the next meal with hope of a comfortable life never in sight? Benefits of development have not been percolating down to the last Indian in obscure parts of the country and our welfare schemes have not delivered the succour they should to restore the smile on parched faces. There are pockets of prosperity of course, but the success story ends once you cross the limits of cities and wander into villages where nothing seems to have changed for centuries.

These are questions that should trouble us as the nation starts off on the next phase of its journey to realise its true potential and more so those who lord over our destinies.