How Modi has hijacked Congress legacy

Congress had kept the ingredients of a welfare structure ready. The Prime Minister mixed them together and added the Modi ‘tadka’ to sell them as his.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi has slowly, but with sharp focus and political craftiness, appropriated much of the Congress-led governments’ welfare legacy. From Aadhaar to the Direct Benefit Transfer scheme, and from MGNREGS to rural housing — the Modi government has made several of the Congress’ marquee initiatives its own, helping the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) project itself as the great saviour of rural India, as against its predominantly Brahmin Bania image earlier.

With Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman’s  rural booster through an additional Rs 40,000 crore under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) — a rural job programme conceptualised and introduced by the UPA 1 government — Modi’s dispensation has underscored its commitment to the scheme and to use it to the hilt at the time of an unprecedented crisis.

A hold over rural India was the strength of the Congress as a national party, which has gradually eroded with it ceding space to the earlier more urban-centric BJP. But more significant than the electoral and political implications of this is the symbolism of it all — Modi using Congress’ initiatives to lay the ground of his pro-welfare image.

And how has this been possible? Simply because somewhere down the line, the Congress was foolish enough to abandon its own creations, or not market them as a substantive legacy. Modi, on the other hand, has been clever enough to know the importance of slyly using his rival’s initiatives and then, going on to make them seem like his babies.

Govt’s stimulus package a glorified loan mela

If you are not a politician, you will look at the Modi government’s economic stimulus package with dismay. What was meant to be a massive economic stimulus package has turned out to be a glorified loan mela.

The government could have announced big projects and given contracts to private companies. It could have subsidised inputs such as power, coal, steel and cement. It could have tied tax incentives to job creation. Companies could have been given financial aid to pay salaries, like several governments across the world have done. Income tax holidays could have been given to people in the middle-income group, so that they had more money to spend on goods and services.

It is true that liquidity has been a problem in some parts of the economy. One big reason for that is the government’s own move to tackle India’s huge bad-loan problem. This has scared banks, who now think twice before lending to businesses or individuals. That’s why people with dicey credit records are finding it tough to get car and housing loans. Small businesses, whose margins have shrunk due to the economic slowdown are not getting loans from banks. Real estate and power are two sectors where most of the bad loans are concentrated and are starved of credit. Most businesses in India run through a web of patronage. Government policies are tweaked to help big companies with political capital. Corporates with close ties to state governments and influential politicians get government contracts. These companies, in turn, subcontract work to smaller companies which are close to politicians who need to be kept happy. These companies get easy loans, especially from public sector banks.

Ground reality - In an economy where the future seems uncertain, neither businesses nor consumers are likely to borrow...

We tried killing the virus. Ended up killing the economy instead.  Have to deal with two fronts now. Can we ... ?

मध्यम वर्ग देश की विकास प्रक्रिया के लिए अत्यंत महत्वपूर्ण है। उदाहरण के लिए:

एक मजबूत मध्यम वर्ग सुशिक्षित होने के कारण मानव पूँजी के विकास को प्रोत्साहित करता है।

यह माँग का एक स्थायी आधार निर्मित करता है और उद्योगों के विकास में सहायता करता है।

इस वर्ग द्वारा की गई बचत का प्रयोग निवेश के एक स्रोत के रूप में किया जा सकता है जो भारतीय अर्थव्यवस्था की संवृद्धि को आगे बढ़ा सकता है।

कर संग्रहण में इनका महत्वपूर्ण योगदान रहता है, जिसका प्रयोग आगे चलकर आय के पुनर्वितरण और सार्वजनिक वस्तुओं व अवसंरचना के विकास में किया जाता है।

मध्यम वर्ग के उभार के साथ-साथ राजनीतिक संस्थाओं की गुणवत्ता भी सुधरती है क्योंकि यह वर्ग अपेक्षाकृत अधिक जागरूक व अपने अधिकारों के लिए संघर्ष को लेकर अधिक प्रतिबद्ध होता है।

मध्यम वर्ग समाज के आधुनिकीकरण में अग्रणी भूमिका निभाता है और इस प्रकार वह समाज को अधिक गतिशील व लचीला बनाता है।

और यह भी सत्य है की इस सरकार की नितियो का पुरज़ोर विरोध नहीं किया गया तो मध्यम वर्ग विलुप्त हो जाएगा.. आगे आप सब विद्वान और शिक्षित है... या तो आप ग़रीबों की तरह वोट बैंक बनिए या फिर अमीरों की तरह बैंक..

Parents are a treasure for sure and it is so hard to lose them. 2015 is a year of losses for me, lost both my parents. I miss them…

Today at 49 I am an adult orphan, a member of the club that no one wants to join but most will. Losing my mother in June,2015 was devastating; but when I lost my father last week it changed me forever. I felt anchorless, as if I was no longer anyone’s child. I may have looked the same but something inside me shifted.

My parents are the reason I’m here. They have been the one stable point during my whole life, the constant. Yes I’m an adult and can stand alone. But there are times I still need them, times I feel very alone. I have a lovely family and wonderful friends. But they are not my parents…

I Miss You

If I had knew then, what I know now.
I would've spent more time, with you somehow.
Time goes by now, very very fast.
I sure wish I could go back, and change the past.

Even with the days, that have gone by.
I think of you still, and I often cry.
Friends say time, makes the hurt go away.
But I think of you, each and every day.

I know I brought, all my troubles to you.
And you'd always tell me, what I should do.
I sometimes didn't listen, but you were always right.
I sure wish I could hear you, just tell me, "good night".

Sure I miss the things, you used to do for me.
My best friends for life, you will always be.
Every night and day, about you I pray.
To see you smile at me, again someday.

Now the place you're going, I may not get to go.
But I'll keep on trying, and I wanted you to know.
Now there's one more thing, I wish I could do.
I wish I could tell you, Maa and Bauji, how much I miss you.

THE PAIN OF MISSING SOMEONE.....

Before I met her I had no clue what love was all I cared about was myself. Then we found each other and I truly found out what love was. Food lost its flavor, the whole world became hazy to where I don't even remember much of what happened. The only thing that mattered was she and being able to put my arms around her. We didn't even need to say anything, just stand next to each other and share our body heat. My true weakness was in her smile. Her face made me realize that everything was ok in the world and I honestly thought that this had to be heaven. Then when we parted it was honestly the worst feeling in the world. I felt like dieing, no, worse, I felt like dieing 1000000 times or ripping my heart out of my chest hoping and praying that if I did that I wouldn't hurt so much. Loosing a lover is the worst feeling in the world and it does the worst things to you. Ever since then I have never really expressed my self fully in fear that I would feel that kind of pain again

I miss you when something really good happens, because you are the one I want to share it with. I miss you when something is troubling me, because you are the one who understands me so well. I miss you when I laugh and cry because i know that you are the one that makes my laughter grow and my tears disappear. I miss you all the time, but I miss you most when i lay awake at night and think of all the wonderful times we spent with each other; for those were some of the best times of my life .

Sometimes I wish...

Sometimes I wish I were a little kid again, skinned knees are easier to fix than broken hearts.