Commenting on one of Rajiv Gandhi’s Independence Day speeches, former Prime Minister Chandrashekhar once said: “It seems things are getting better and prices are coming down only in two places. In 7 RCR [Race Course Road] and the PMO [Prime Minister’s Office]!” He might have said the same about Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s second August 15 speech on Saturday. He might even have said that things Modi said seem to be only in his mind. That is how I felt. The one thing that struck me most about the prime minister’s speech was how isolated from reality he seems to have become. He seems to be living in a gilded cage of his own making.
The Wholesale Price Index is going down, as Modi seemed to hint, but ask anyone who buys groceries if prices have reduced?
Other numbers tell their own tale. Saraswati Prasad, joint secretary at the Ministry of Drinking Water and Sanitation’s Swachh Bharat Mission-Gramin division, has been announcing that since the Swachch Bharat Abhiyan began, it has constructed 80 lakh new countryside toilets. The prime minister himself claims that a more modest 4.25 lakh toilets were built in 2.62 lakh schools nationwide in the past year. Obviously there are a lot fewer schools needing toilets than habitations needing home and communal toilets. Even so, this represents a smaller number of toilets built last year than in 2011-'12 when 88 lakh toilets were built. The money released in 2012-'13 for toilets was Rs 2,438 crore, which is more than the Rs 2,123 crore released last year. So what is the prime minister crowing about? Clearly, Modi is not frying a new fish but has been merely warming a well-cooked one and serving it up as a fresh offering.
Many extravagant claims...
There are other problems that have become apparent. Many, if not most, of these new sarkari toilets lie in disuse. One Uttar Pradesh official said: “Though several toilets have been built in this area, villagers still prefer going out into fields to attend nature’s call. In some villages where they have constructed toilets, there is no proper waste management…so they are frustrated with the idea.” It’s clear that the problem is much more complex than merely constructing toilets. More toilets mean more sewage lines. More sewage lines mean more sewage treatment lines. Besides common toilets, whether in schools or villages or city slums, need to be maintained and kept usable. Otherwise the great big outdoors will always be the more preferred and even healthier option. And indeed they are.
Let’s take another one of Modi’s extravagant claims. He claimed that 20 lakh consumers gave up their LPG subsidy. But the reality is very different. As on April 8, 2015, 1,91,632 Indane consumers, 40,212 Bharat Gas consumers and 89,491 HP consumers had given up their subsidy. This amounts to only 0.2% of the 16 crore LPG connections in the country. The total subsidy (2013-'14) on LPG was Rs 46,458 crore, accounting for 25% of the overall fuel subsidy burden of Rs 1.39 lakh crore. The total amount thus foregone is about Rs 193 crore. There is still a huge mountain ahead to climb. But the prime minister seems to think he is close to making the final assault on the peak?
The prime minister said in his speech, “Some people are worried about tough law on black money. The government has ensured that nobody dares to take black money out of the country.” Now let me share a personal anecdote. A Non-Resident Indian friend, who sold some property here, received it in the usual “black and white” combination. He just contacted a hawala operator and the “black” money went out in a jiffy and straight into his bank account overseas. According to the Global Financial Integrity, a well-regarded research and advisory organisation in Washington DC, India exported $439 billion during 2003-'12, of which $94.8 billion was in 2012 alone.
...And one good one
GFI President Raymond Baker said: “The most troubling... is the fact that these outflows are growing at an alarming rate of 9.4% a year – twice as fast as global GDP.” According to Modi, people disclosed Rs 6,500 crore under the compliance window of black money and foreign assets law. That is about $1 billion of the tens of billions that leave our shores by way of hawala, mis-invoicing of exports and imports, and just unreported exports, as was discovered in the case of iron ore. Once again Modi exhibits a distance from reality that is quite disturbing.
While many of the prime minister’s extravagant claims can be similarly dealt with, one claim he can rightly make is that his government came good on realising a huge sum by auctioning coal blocks to the highest bidders. This is something his predecessor too wanted to do, but his resolve crumbled in the face of pressures he was unable to resist. This is something Modi might have crowed about a bit more, but this important truth was lost amidst all the hyperbole.
In Narendra Modi, the Bharatiya Janata Party may not have given India another poet as prime minister, but it has certainly given us a good sloganeer and wordsmith. Last year, at Lal Qila, as he exhorted youth to join the manufacturing sector, he gave us the slogan “Zero defect, zero effect”, meaning there would be no defect in the products they manufacture and and that they would cause zero or no ill effect on the environment. This of course was a corollary to his Make in India. This year, it was “Start Up India” and “Stand Up India”. Thankfully, he didn’t greet the audience again with “May the force be with you”.
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The Wholesale Price Index is going down, as Modi seemed to hint, but ask anyone who buys groceries if prices have reduced?
Other numbers tell their own tale. Saraswati Prasad, joint secretary at the Ministry of Drinking Water and Sanitation’s Swachh Bharat Mission-Gramin division, has been announcing that since the Swachch Bharat Abhiyan began, it has constructed 80 lakh new countryside toilets. The prime minister himself claims that a more modest 4.25 lakh toilets were built in 2.62 lakh schools nationwide in the past year. Obviously there are a lot fewer schools needing toilets than habitations needing home and communal toilets. Even so, this represents a smaller number of toilets built last year than in 2011-'12 when 88 lakh toilets were built. The money released in 2012-'13 for toilets was Rs 2,438 crore, which is more than the Rs 2,123 crore released last year. So what is the prime minister crowing about? Clearly, Modi is not frying a new fish but has been merely warming a well-cooked one and serving it up as a fresh offering.
Many extravagant claims...
There are other problems that have become apparent. Many, if not most, of these new sarkari toilets lie in disuse. One Uttar Pradesh official said: “Though several toilets have been built in this area, villagers still prefer going out into fields to attend nature’s call. In some villages where they have constructed toilets, there is no proper waste management…so they are frustrated with the idea.” It’s clear that the problem is much more complex than merely constructing toilets. More toilets mean more sewage lines. More sewage lines mean more sewage treatment lines. Besides common toilets, whether in schools or villages or city slums, need to be maintained and kept usable. Otherwise the great big outdoors will always be the more preferred and even healthier option. And indeed they are.
Let’s take another one of Modi’s extravagant claims. He claimed that 20 lakh consumers gave up their LPG subsidy. But the reality is very different. As on April 8, 2015, 1,91,632 Indane consumers, 40,212 Bharat Gas consumers and 89,491 HP consumers had given up their subsidy. This amounts to only 0.2% of the 16 crore LPG connections in the country. The total subsidy (2013-'14) on LPG was Rs 46,458 crore, accounting for 25% of the overall fuel subsidy burden of Rs 1.39 lakh crore. The total amount thus foregone is about Rs 193 crore. There is still a huge mountain ahead to climb. But the prime minister seems to think he is close to making the final assault on the peak?
The prime minister said in his speech, “Some people are worried about tough law on black money. The government has ensured that nobody dares to take black money out of the country.” Now let me share a personal anecdote. A Non-Resident Indian friend, who sold some property here, received it in the usual “black and white” combination. He just contacted a hawala operator and the “black” money went out in a jiffy and straight into his bank account overseas. According to the Global Financial Integrity, a well-regarded research and advisory organisation in Washington DC, India exported $439 billion during 2003-'12, of which $94.8 billion was in 2012 alone.
...And one good one
GFI President Raymond Baker said: “The most troubling... is the fact that these outflows are growing at an alarming rate of 9.4% a year – twice as fast as global GDP.” According to Modi, people disclosed Rs 6,500 crore under the compliance window of black money and foreign assets law. That is about $1 billion of the tens of billions that leave our shores by way of hawala, mis-invoicing of exports and imports, and just unreported exports, as was discovered in the case of iron ore. Once again Modi exhibits a distance from reality that is quite disturbing.
While many of the prime minister’s extravagant claims can be similarly dealt with, one claim he can rightly make is that his government came good on realising a huge sum by auctioning coal blocks to the highest bidders. This is something his predecessor too wanted to do, but his resolve crumbled in the face of pressures he was unable to resist. This is something Modi might have crowed about a bit more, but this important truth was lost amidst all the hyperbole.
In Narendra Modi, the Bharatiya Janata Party may not have given India another poet as prime minister, but it has certainly given us a good sloganeer and wordsmith. Last year, at Lal Qila, as he exhorted youth to join the manufacturing sector, he gave us the slogan “Zero defect, zero effect”, meaning there would be no defect in the products they manufacture and and that they would cause zero or no ill effect on the environment. This of course was a corollary to his Make in India. This year, it was “Start Up India” and “Stand Up India”. Thankfully, he didn’t greet the audience again with “May the force be with you”.