The discussions in Parliament today will be the beginning of a momentum that will highlight the government’s failures in the run-up to the general elections. (PTI photo)
The Indian Parliament will witness a discussion on the 27th No-Confidence Motion against any government today. This discussion comes after a gap of 15 years; the last one was in 2003. The first no-confidence motion was moved by Acharya J B Kripalani against the government headed by Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru which was defeated. However, the first no-confidence motion that led to the falling of a government was that of Morarji Desai moved by Y B Chavan in 1979.
Irrespective of the outcome of the six-hour long debate scheduled in Parliament today, one thing that is crystal clear is how the Opposition unity is giving the BJP sleepless nights and has finally got the arrogant, brazen government to reach out to its own alliance partners. It also has managed to get the government to defer arbitrary amendments to dilute the RTI bill. The no-confidence motion has also exposed the duplicity of those parties that bicker publicly with the government yet continue to be their silent supporters.
The discussions in Parliament today will be the beginning of a momentum that will highlight the government’s failures in the run-up to the general elections. The four years of Modi government have been a disaster from the word go and all indicators clearly show that due to its failed governance we are seeing the BJP’s time-tested formula of sowing hate and reaping political benefits come to the fore. The incidents of hate crimes, normalising mob lynching, defending convicts of heinous crimes and the riot mongers seems to be the BJP’s script for 2019 but the Congress is committed to highlighting the government failures, the biggest of which is the economy. The disastrous demonetisation cost the country Rs 3 lakh crore in GDP growth and wiped out over 25 lakh jobs, while a hastily implemented GST impacted small businesses besides unleashing chaos with unclear as well as hard to implement filing and refund process. The Modi government has presided over the collapse of India’s banking system with the last quarter indicating a net loss of over Rs 44,000 crore, the highest in recorded history for our banks. To hide its mess, the Modi government has now decided to hive off its stake in IDBI by using the hard earned money of every Indian that invested in LIC policy. The international oil prices have been falling since 2014 yet instead of passing the benefits to the people of the country, this government chose to increase central excise taxes (by over 200 per cent on petrol and over 400 per cent on diesel) to make oil costlier than it has ever been, and collected over Rs 10 lakh crore .
The farmers of the country continue to suffer the government apathy. India’s agricultural growth over the past four years has been at its lowest since economic reforms began at a growth rate of mere 1.9 per cent. The minimum support price announced by the government has also turned out to be a big joke on the farmers and yet another jumla by the government to mislead the farmers, even agricultural experts have slammed the MSP + 50 per cent profit claim of the government. To compound this further, agricultural exports fell. After promising 2 crore jobs a year to our young this government has miserably failed in creating jobs. The women of this country continue to fight for equal opportunities and access yet the government refuses to pay heed to their demands. The NCRB data shows constant rise in violence against women and conviction rate lower than past governments exposes their failures. The promise of 33 per cent reservation for women continues to lie in cold storage despite the commitment from Congress to support the bill whenever presented in the parliament.
The lal lal aankh and chappan inch seena claims in 2014 have also proved to be hollow and boastful that has led to challenges for India’s internal and external security. The diplomacy failures despite PM travelling to 84 countries since 2014 are hard to miss. India for the first time witness a Prime Minister that went to Pakistan uninvited and to China on a no-agenda visit. Needless to say both trips besides to other countries have been spectacular failures for the country’s diplomatic strength and outreach.
The countdown for the Modi government has begun and today’s no-confidence motion is only the beginning to ensure that people also endorse the opposition stance by registering their no-confidence in Modi’s government through their vote in 2019. Indian democracy has been and shall always be supreme.