On 26 May, Modi-led BJP will complete one year in the office. Everyone remembers that during its multi-million rupee hi-tech electoral campaign, there were surfeit of promises made by Modi and his party that, they said, would bring good days to the common man. The monopoly-controlled media which played the role of Modi’s principal publicity and public relations manager raised the pitch in favour of this dream-vending by Modi and BJP. Now, all such promises are proved to be counterfeit, all dreams bogus. Have a quick glance at the one year factsheet of Modi and BJP.
1. Modi raised diesel price by Rs 1.27 immediately after coming to power on 15-05-14.
2. Modi steeply hiked railway passenger fare by 14.2%, freight charges by 6.5% and almost doubled the monthly ticket charges of daily commuters on 20-06-14 through an administrative fiat bypassing Parliament when the latter is in session.
3. After imposing hefty increase in passenger fare and freight charges immediately on coming to power and announcing 100% FDI for railway modernization, Prime Minister Modi has now called for privatization of railway stations and allowing private parties to build up luxury hotels, restaurants and other facilities there. In other words, he has spelt out the government’s decision to eventually hand over railway operation to private operators through PPP route and infusion of FDI.
4. Modi government decided to sell 50% of tatkal Railway tickets at progressively higher prices in the name of dynamic pricing. Already the passengers paid 30% more than normal fares for tatkal tickets. Now, there was an additional burden for tickets to be sold after exhaustion of first 50% of tatkal quota at rates that would go up after every 10%.
5. Modi government doubled railway platform ticket rate from Rs 5 to Rs 10 to be effective from 1st April, 2015. Not only that. The Divisional Railway Managers have been empowered to increase the rate of platform ticket beyond Rs 10 to regulate rush at platform during specific requirements like mela (fair) and rally.
6. Modi government announced proposal of allowing 100% FDI in defence and media.
7. Modi declared that all Public Sector Units (PSUs) including PSU banks will have to compulsorily divest 25% of the government stakes which means rolling out the plan to eventually privatize the PSUs once created with public finance and hence deemed for all intent and purpose public property.
8. Modi pushed up sugar price by Rs 3 per kg, LPG cylinder price by Rs 10 per month and piped natural gas price by around Rs 1500 per unit.
9. Modi again raised the price of domestic cooking gas cylinder by Rs. 3 on the pretext of recovering the increased commission to be paid to the dealers.
10. Modi took most atrocious decision to deregulate diesel prices in keeping with the pernicious prescripts of economic liberalization wreaking havoc in people’s life.
11. Modi allowed 49% FDI in defence and insurance.
12. Modi is talking of reviving the Special Economic Zones (SEZs).
13. Modi had no qualm in calling the minorities as kutte ki baccha (puppies).
14. In Modi’s regime, communal violence, polarizing communities, had overtaken UP so much so that it has turned into a tinderbox which could explode at any point in time at slightest of provocation. The state has witnessed at least 24 riots since May 16, 2014 the day the Lok Sabha election results were announced. Of the 12 constituencies that fell vacant after BJP MLAs were elected MPs, six have seen communal clashes in the past two-and-a-half-month.
15. Modi by one stroke cancelled that little price-control in life saving and essential drugs in order to pave the way for the multinational corporations and the monopoly capitalists to raise drug prices at will. of late. Over and above 108 medicines having their prices raised earlier, of late prices of 509 more essential medicines have been raised phenomenally
16. Modi government scrapped the central scheme for free drug and diagnostics as a further step towards complete withdrawal of the state from public health and leaving the arena exclusively to the private operators for running on commercial basis.
17. Every hour Modi government waives Rs 7 crores of corporate tax and every day exempts Rs 168 crores towards that.
18. 43 peasants commit suicide everyday in Modi’s India.
19. In BJP-ruled Maharashtra, 7 farmers commit suicide everyday.
20. Modi and BJP averred that if elected to office it would within hundred days bring back to the country so much black money from abroad as to give every Indian citizen Rs 15 lakh as a share of the spoils. However after being saddled in power, the Modi government has not so far produced of its own even 15 names who may have secreted away clandestine funds abroad. At the Supreme Court’s prodding, the government ultimately submitted a measly list of 627 names provided by HSBC Bank, Geneva.
21. Modi government to teach Sanskrit compulsorily as a third language at Kendriya Vidyalaya schools.
22. Modi has issued new Land Acquisition Ordinance which is nothing but a heinous policy for snatching lands from the peasants in the interest of the domestic and foreign multinational corporations particularly those MNCs who want to invest huge capital in real-estate business. As a result of this ordinance millions of poor and middle peasants will be uprooted from their lands and will add the numbers of the street beggars.
23. Modi government has slashed 20% of approved health budget from the allotment of 2014-2015.
24. Modi government has decided to end support to Palestine at the U.N. and be friendly with Zionist Israel.
25. The BJP-led Maharashtra government following the footsteps of BJP-led Rajasthan Government proposed to confer, by way of amending Industrial Disputes Act 1947, unilateral right to the capitalist owners of factories with less than 300 workers to lay off staff or close down the units without seeking government permission. It is estimated that roughly 39,000 of the 41,000 establishments located in Maharashtra, the most industrialized state of the country, will be covered by this proposed outright anti-working class amendment which, brought out in the line of Prime Minister Modi’s pro-capitalist “Make in India” campaign, will insecure the life and livelihood of lakhs of workers, erode workers’ hard earned rights and lead to job losses stoking further unemployment. It is also reported that a move is afoot to amend the Contract Labour Act, 1970, so that units with 50 or more contract workers as against 20 at present will be required to register with the government thereby allowing small- and medium-scale industries to hire contract labour more freely and depriving the workers of their trade union, socio-economic and constitutional rights and rendering them more vulnerable to the whims and diktats of the employers. Likewise, Factory Act, 1948, is proposed to be amended so that safety rules under the law will now be mandatory for units employing 20 workers or more as against 10 at present.
26. Modi government appointed Kunwar Bharatendra, MP from Bijnore and an accused in Muzaffarnagar communal riot cases, to the Aligarh Muslim University Court, the highest decision making body of this reputed academic institute.
27. In the image of the Preamble to the Constitution which featured in the advertisement published in newspapers to commemorate India’s 66th Republic Day, the Modi-led BJP government did not use the word ‘socialist’ and ‘secular’.
28. BJP-led Maharashtra government has scrapped the 5% reservation provided for the Muslim community in educational institutions by the former Congress-led government through an ordinance passed in July 2014.
29. BJP-led Maharashtra government also sought to control the diet of many of the countrymen by banning eating of beef which is consumed by many across the world—an act that is tantamount to discrimination and reflective of definite communal bias against a particular community.
30. BJP-led Gujarat government has come out with a new draconian Act called Gujarat Control of Organized Crime Bill (GUJCOC) which confers unbriddled and autocratic power to the government-police-administration to intercept phone calls of any person, submit confessions before a cop as an admissible evidence in court and extend period of detention without charge upto 180 days. The Act also stipulates that offences under the Act would be non-bailable and provides immunity to the State government from legal action through an ambiguous idea of “good faith.”
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