At a time when the Prime Minister is working towards uniting the various castes, creeds and communities it is indeed tragic to see tensions being spread by wily politicians with the held of fabrications, lies and deceit. It is also my observation that the so-called left liberals, who constantly accuse the BJP and RSS of fanning caste and regional tensions, are the first to mention a particular persons origin or region to divide us Indians, especially when it suits their narrative.
One such old article written by Praveen Chakravarty in June 2017 caught my attention. Coincidentally this same person is now heading the “big data analytics” division for the Congress party as informed by Mr Rahul Gandhi himself.
Excited to announce a “Data Analytics” dept under the leadership of Praveen Chakravarty to effectively use “Big Data”. pic.twitter.com/hvOBVZILlk
— Office of RG (@OfficeOfRG) February 5, 2018
In this “data backed” study, to summarize, the author claims that Uttar Pradesh shall be funding loan waivers through the grants it receives from the devolution to states from the Central Government and thus it is the people from four major states (Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Maharashtra and Gujarat) who are contributing maximum to central tax revenue shall be funding this loan waiver.
Without commenting on the economics of loan waivers, I wish to state how wrong this particular claim is. This is far from the truth. For this one needs to look at the budget documents provided for by the Uttar Pradesh Government. Which can be accessed here.
Total size of the loan waiver: Approx 36,000 Crores
The total revenue of the state of Uttar Pradesh on its own is Rs. 3,19,397.43 crores as can be seen from the Budget Summary in point 1.
The total surplus after deducting all expenses according to the Budget summary (point 13) is Rs. 12,278.80 crores
The reduction in Power Sector Allocation according to the Budget Document (Page 36) is Rs. 17,728 crores.
The total funding for waivers has been achieved by :
1. Reduction in allocation to power sector from 34,602 Cr to 17,728 cr and
2. By attempting to achieve higher revenues from earlier budgeted ones. Earlier estimates had targeted revenue of 2.69 Lac cr which now was estimated to be 3.19 Lac crores.
From the above its clear that Uttar Pradesh Government is funding its own loan waiver and it is not being funded by some farmers from Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu or Gujarat.
The fact that the explanation is so simple, the data so easily available and the analysis to elementary brings us to a larger question. Why are people cherry-picking data and peddling unfounded analysis? Why are people creating such issues? I leave it to readers to understand and question such things. We shall achieve bigger things when central government and the states work together to bring a new India for Indians. Today we need reasons to be one and not reasons which divide us. New India can and should be built on collective efforts of every state and its constituents.
But perhaps the greatest irony of it all, is that the man who seemingly failed at interpreting such basic data, has been employed by Rahul Gandhi as the chief of “big data analytics”. I believe we can only wish Rahul Gandhi the best and chuckle in private.
