It may feel like time has come to a standstill because, really, we just had the 2019 elections a few months back only’ but time is deceptive. Two years of a pandemic may feel like we are stuck, but things have moved ahead.
5.4 million households in India got toilets built between 2020-2021 and 2021-2022 under the Swachha Bharat Mission (Grameen). Despite constraints of the COVID-19 pandemic, 6 crore rural households in India got tap water connections. Under Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Yojana, 14 crores of free LPG cylinders were given during the pandemic to the poor.
In a series of tweets in July 2021 Union Minister of Road Transport and Highways Nitin Gadkari said that highway construction had seen a sharp rise during the pandemic period. He had said that in 2020-21, the highway construction pace reached 36.5 km/day. This was the highest-ever construction speed for national highways.
India has also created world record by constructing 2.5 km 4 lane concrete road in just 24 hours and 26 km single lane Bitumen road in just 21 hours. #PragatiKaHighway
— Nitin Gadkari (@nitin_gadkari) July 20, 2021
Some record-breaking work was done in infrastructure development across India while the country struggled to cope with the virus. Speaking of virus, the Central government led by Prime Minister Modi gave free ration to 80 crore people of India. Total population of India is pegged to be around 135 crore.
Under Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Anna Yojana, the Centre announced the first relief package for the poor on March 26, 2020, just days into the first ever lockdown, when we stared at uncertainty. The idea was to make sure the poor of India, who were likely to be worst affected, do not have to struggle for food. Free foodgrains for 80 crore people, cooking gas for 8 crore families, and direct cash transfer to over 40 crore farmers, women, the elderly, the poor, and the needy were provided by the Centre during the pandemic. For two years, the Central government provided ration, making sure the most vulnerable section of the society is taken care of.
Not just that, on war footing the vaccines were manufactured and administered including homegrown vaccine, Covaxin. In just about 8 months, over a 100 crore doses were administered. This, despite the opposition leaders creating vaccine hesitancy and playing politics with our lives for their own gains. It was the diplomatic relations created and nurtured over past years that when the oxygen crisis hit India in April 2021, other countries came together to help us out by sending oxygen cylinders and other requirements. We were in this together.
What has Modi done for Hindus?
One of the many grievances people have with PM Modi is what has he done specifically for Hindus. Well, Hindus are unabashedly wearing their religious identity on their sleeves. The farce of ‘secularism’ we have grown up with is being torn down and more people are waking up to realisation that secularism has to be two-way street. That the ‘liberals’ and Islamists are calling ‘Jai Shri Ram’ a terror slogan and that is not okay. People are realising and saying it aloud that baying for someone’s blood and justifying beheading just because someone said something about your divine figures is not acceptable in a civilised society.
Politics is more than just winning elections. The leaders need to create an environment where civilisational issues can be discussed and corrected. A country is not run just by the elected leaders. There are bureaucrats, government officers who continue to serve whichever politician is in power. So it may appear like he has ‘not done anything’ for Hindus, but he has definitely been a catalyst, setting things in motion for a lot of issues.
That a film like Kashmir Files is made 32 years after genocide of Kashmiri Hindus and for the first time a majority of Indians were made to realise how bloody our recent past has been. Things that were brushed under the carpet are being discussed. It may not be a lot, but it is a beginning. There are discussions, debates and conversations. History that has been systematically rewritten over the years with tacit support of ruling dispensation is being corrected, but it won’t happen overnight and we must not lose hope. After all, there are a lot of disputed structures across India that need to be reclaimed.
Not just ‘TINA’
‘There is no alternative’ – ‘TINA factor’ is often peddled as the only reason Modi has won two rounds of general elections and if things go as they look, is set to win even the third time around. Except, that is not true. Before he became the Prime Minister, he has won Gujarat state assembly elections thrice – consecutively. It would not be wrong to say that he has won every election he has contested since 2001. That is a long time for anyone to stay in power ‘just because there’s no other alternative’.
And it is not that over these years other leaders have not portrayed themselves as PM candidate. Nitish Kumar wanted to be PM himself and even now harbours the dreams which has has made no effort to hide in recent times. West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, too, has these dreams. As does Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal. Back in 2014, when seasoned protestor Yogendra Yadav, a former Sonia Gandhi aide, was a close aide to Kejriwal, the latter quit as chief minister of Delhi in just 49 days to contest elections against Narendra Modi from Varanasi. Kejriwal, of course, lost the election, but the hope is still alive. He has been trying to portray himself as a national leader.
And speaking of Yogendra Yadav, he has now attached himself to the Gandhis again. Rahul Gandhi has roped him and other ‘activists’ as part of his ‘Bharat Jodo’ container yatra, which appears to have been highly inspired from ex-Pakistan PM Imran Khan’s ‘container yatra’. Rahul Gandhi, too, has been having hopes of becoming the Prime Minister of India one day – after all, his father, grandmother and great grandfather have been one.
Except for Rahul Gandhi, others have been chief ministers of their states, just like Modi was before he became the Prime Minister. Rahul Gandhi has been four time MP – more number of times than Modi has been.
These are all ‘alternatives’. You may not vote for them but there are people who have. So just because you don’t think they’re worthy to be PM, doesn’t mean others don’t think so – ask those who voted for them all these years.
