Slogans are pet political tools. They also reveal the direction in which the political masters of the day want the country to move. But unless slogans are backed with appropriate strategies and perseverance, they often fizzle out[fi-zul awt(failed,असफल होना)] without delivery, remaining only as showbiz.
Late Prime Minister Lal Bahadur Shastri raised the slogan “Jai jawan, jai kisan” in the mid-1960s, Even today, that slogan resonates and inspires.
Late PM Indira Gandhi’s most famous slogan was “Garibi hatao”, in the early 1970s. She took several socialist steps to eliminate poverty, including the takeover of wholesale trade in wheat and rice, only to be given up after a major fiasco[fee'as-kow(failure,असफलता)]. Has garibi vanished[va-nisht(disappear,गायब)] over all these years? UPA 2, on its last legs, was still counting whether the poor constituted 21 per cent, 30 per cent or 67 per cent of the population — the poor they wanted to provide highly subsidised food through the National Food Security Act, 2013.
But no past political master can match our present PM, Narendra Modi, in coining new slogans and catching the imagination of the masses. Who won’t like slogans like “Sabka saath, sabka vikas”, “Swachh Bharat”, “Make in India”, “Per drop, more crop”, JAM (Jan Dhan-Aadhaar-Mobile), and so on? Each is well intentioned, with a lot of showmanship. The lion of Make in India is now widely visible in every effort to woo[woo(look for favour,समर्थन मांगना)] investors. But in a number of recent meetings I’ve had with India’s top investors, one question that most had on their lips was, “Slogans are fine, but where is the commensurate strategy to turn it into reality?” And that’s worrying.
Let me dig a little deeper into at least one slogan And that’s “Sabka saath, sabka vikas”. It was meant to work across the spectrum of parties, states, socio-economic and religious groups. But where’s the strategy to make it a reality?
But I’m definitely concerned with “sabka vikas”, and it’s here that I feel the government’s strategy is getting increasingly skewed in favour of those who are already better-off. We hear a lot about FDI, Make in India, smart cities, bullet trains, etc,But we don’t hear, at the same pitch and frequency, what the government is doing to tackle deepening rural distress, the increasing water scarcity[skehr-si-tee(not enough,अपर्याप्तता)] , including drinking water, etc. Why do we boast of our overall growth rate of 7-8 per cent, when agricultural growth was just 0.2 per cent.
We are concerned about this because almost half the workforce and about 60 per cent of the population is dependent on agriculture. If their growth is less than even their population growth, it should be a matter of serious concern, if not shame. The danger signals are clear: During November 2014-October 2015, tractor sales collapsed by 23 per cent over the corresponding period the previous year; fertiliser consumption — 141 kg per hectare (ha) in FY11 — has come down to 130 kg per ha in FY15. This sagging[sa-ging(loose,ढीली)] rural demand doesn’t auger well for industry.
What are the two or three big-ticket things the PM can do in the agri-food space to ensure “sabka vikas”? First, he needs to resurrect[re-zu'rekt(reborn,पुनर्जीवित)] the crop insurance system urgently,Next, the PM needs to turn to direct benefit transfer (DBT) of food and fertiliser subsidies. These subsidies exceed Rs 2,50,000 crore today. Converting them to DBT will help plug massive leakages, reach the poorest, and still save at least Rs 40,000 crore per annum, which can be used for augmenting[og'ment(increase,बढ़ाना)] and better managing agricultural water resources. This will, in turn, help in drought-proofing the agri sector.
Download monthly pdf of October
No comments:
Post a Comment