The end of tenure of BJP led NDA government at the Centre is fast approaching which was fraught with multitude of electoral promises of 2014, unfulfilled which include the creation of 10 million jobs. Mesmerizing the electorate with the slogan ‘Sapke Sath Sapke Vikas’, the capabilities of RSS – BJP combine in providing effective governance, again with the catchy slogan, ‘Maximum Governance Minimum Government’ has exposed its negativity, besides its narratives of fabricating the statistics and its projection of failures as blatant success.
The NDA government has chosen not to publish the National Sample Survey Offices’ (NSSO) Periodic Labour Force Survey (PLFS) Report for July 2017 – June 2018. According to the leaked report, in 2017-18, the unemployment rate in the country as per the usual status was at 6.1 percent, while as per the current weekly status, the unemployment rate stood at an alarming 8.9 percent. The unemployment has been the worst in the last 45 years. The unemployment rate among the youth (between the ages of 15 and 29) was considerably high. It is coupled with the low labour force participation with more people withdrawing from the workforce, especially women. Such incompatible statistical depiction does not bode well for a growing economy like us, but speaks much of ills and setback in the growth of the economy.
The renowned institution CMIE (The Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy Private Limited) has conducted a survey of a sample comprising 1.7 lakh households and it shows the worsening situation of employment in the country after 2016. The demonetization of high value currency notes in November 2016 and the introduction of GST in July 2017 have caused the implosion of unemployment bomb heavily.
The NDA government came to power by seeking the mandate of the electorate by stating that country had been witnessing ‘jobless growth’ during the earlier UPA regimes of a decade. The real contribution of NDA rule remains making worse the bad situation. Instead of accepting the persistent and aggravated malady in the economy, the rulers try to restrict the release of data, evidencing the distress in the employment scenario. To fall in line next to RBI with the systematic move of sidelining the autonomous as well as authenticated survery conducting institutions, National Statistics Commission is subjected not to act on what it has to act.
Besides the governing delinquencies, the PM Modi, unmindful of the consequences of his interpretation on the floor of Parliament that jobs have been generated enormously evidenced by the employees’ enrolment in Employment Provident Fund during the tenure, without reckoning the formal addition requirement of organizations that attained the minimum strength of 20 employees (which was earlier short by just one or two members) have to necessarily join the EPF scheme. PM Modi’s statement on it was like rhetoric utterance at public meetings with no scope of argument/deliberations like that in Parliament. Make in India Scheme – How far it was successful? Patel statue was imported from China. Is it an achievement?
Human Capital is fundamental for proper deployment in a developing economy like ours. Without harnessing anything concretely, relying and repeating the rhetoric speeches as at the elections of 2014, will not save the BJP rule. Doing the desired task properly is the duty of the rulers. Instead, the BJP masking its lapses as if it has been carrying out the task very rightly.
The dividend rewarding demography of the country has to be properly managed by the rulers. The BJP rule has made it ‘Distress’ by adding so many histories it had done earlier. Distress and its aggravation has to be focal point in the forthcoming Lok Sabha elections. Otherwise ‘distress’ in perpetuation will be a distinct feature of the economy of ‘Bharat’ that is India!
