How Modi Hacks EVMs, Part 3: From exceeding target and destroying 1,60,000 kgs of drugs in 60 days to AYUSH, COVID vaccines and more

 The following article was written for OpIndia. Pasting it here for reference:

In the run-up to the celebrations of 75^th year of Independence, Prime Minister Narendra Modi set a unique target for the Home Ministry – destroy 75,000 kgs of drugs in 60 days! As with many aspects of this government, the ministry exceeded this target and burnt 1,60,000 kgs of drugs in that 60-day window!

Speaking on this topic in the Lok Sabha, Home Minister Amit Shah laid out in detail the policy of the Modi government in dealing with the drug menace and provided statistics on how 62,60,000 kgs of drugs were destroyed in the 2014-2022 period (2023 saw another 10,00,000 kgs of drugs destroyed). Now, can you imagine all the serious health problems that have been prevented because of this seizure and destruction of the drugs? The drugs are valued at nearly 1 lakh crore rupees, so can you imagine the scale of the burden that was never put on the youth of this country because of this nearly 200% increase in seizure (compared to the UPA)?

While we are on the topic of prevention, I recollect the jabs the elite crowd used to make (or still make) on the Ayurvedic way of life that the AYUSH (Ayurveda, Yoga and Naturopathy, Unani, Siddha, and Homoeopathy) ministry propagates, again often forgetting that it is very difficult to quantify what is prevented because of following this lifestyle. When Yoga is picked up by the entire world, it is not because it is a fashion to do so, but Yoga prevents many a health problem (physical and mental) that cannot be quantified!

We cannot speak of prevention and not bring up the topic of vaccines, especially the COVID vaccines. Developing and deploying our own COVID vaccines, especially Covishield and Covaxin, is perhaps one of our biggest success stories in history. India conducted the world’s largest and fastest vaccination drive (200 crore doses in 18 months) and more importantly, everything was digital! The development and deployment of the CoWIN app that was sought after by other countries too. We had discussed in detail, back then, how India mastered this process despite one of the most uncooperative opposition parties and the media.

This ofcourse doesn’t mean people will not get sick. Often, people living in towns and villages or even in tier-2 cities had to travel very far to get treatment for their health problems. The proximity to a good health care facility gets resolved if we have more medical colleges (and therefore hospitals) and more qualified doctors graduate every year. Up until the year 2014, we had only 387 medical colleges in the entire country. Today, that number is at 706 – out of which 157 of them are government colleges/hospitals. The medical seats under MBBS increased from a mere 50,000 in 2014 to more than 1 lakh in 2023! This basically means that crores of people now can go to a good hospital closer to their home than spending a lot of time and money to travel to larger cities.

The Madhya Pradesh government even started to impart MBBS in Hindi. I am sure that very soon MBBS will be imparted in many regional languages too. Controversial editor Shekhar Gupta published an article in The Print in which the author thundered on and on about how the medical education must remain elitist and be imparted in English only. This one article is enough to tell you how the elite are worried about losing out their bastions, one by one! Anyways, we digress.

While visiting these hospitals, crores of people in our country do not have to spend money if they are eligible for the Ayushman Bharat health cards. So far, nearly 30 crore people have been given the Ayushman Bharat cards which make them eligible to get free treatment for upto 5 lakhs rupees. So far, Ayushman Bharat has successfully catered to 6.2 crore hospital admissions worth more than Rs. 79,157crores! Let the number sink in – 6.2 crore hospital admissions worth nearly 80,000 crores!

Even the medication you will have to take post this hospitalization has been made really affordable through the generic Jan Aushadi stores. Though these stores existed before 2014 too, their number was too small and the probability is very high that you did not even know these existed. Today, we have a whopping 10,000 such stores across India.

Through the program Heal in India, India even increased focus on what is termed as Medical Tourism – inviting foreigners to come to India to make best use of the very affordable medical facilities in India, as compared to many western countries. This has already brought in billions of dollars of revenue to lakhs of people reliant on the medical industry in India.

Now, think about everything we just wrote. The equal focus on prevention (drug busts, AYUSH ministry, Yoga, Vaccines, POSHAN abhiyans) and on cure (more than 100% increase in number of medical colleges and doctors; more AIIMS across the country; free treatment upto 5 lakh rupees; affordable medicines closer to your home) has benefitted crores of families in our country. Which bring us to our core argument - many of these beneficiaries will willing go to the polling booth and press on the Lotus button on the EVM, come election day. While the opposition will be busy screaming that the EVM was hacked, the Prime Minister skilfully shows us how he hacks them!

In the first two articles of the series “Decoding how PM Modi Hacks EVMs” we were speaking about how he was creating wealth through entrepreneurship and employment. In this third article of the series, we discussed about how he created wealth through health, and therefore found another way to hack EVMs!

Murder, betrayal, religion, and politics – The real shady palace intrigue of Andhra Pradesh’s YSR family that will put any fictional series to shame!

 

The following article was written for OpIndia. Pasting it here for reference:

According to Dr. Sanjaya Baru, media advisor to then Prime Minister Manmohan Singh once wrote that whenever the then Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh, Dr. Y.S.Rajashekhar Reddy  visited Delhi, Manmohan Singh always used the same welcome line – “Welcome Dr. Reddy, we are here because you are there”. Manmohan Singh was referring to the massive victory that Congress scored in the combined Andhra Pradesh under YSR’s guidance (34/42 seats in 2004 and 33/42 in 2009). While he was still the CM, YSR died in an helicopter accident in September 2009.

His son Y.S.Jagan Mohan Reddy assumed that he will be made the Chief Minister. Sonia Gandhi was not in favour of doing so. Jagan split the party and left Congress. CBI then arrested Jagan for indulging in corruption when YSR was Chief Minister. Jagan became leader of opposition in 2014 and the Chief Minister in 2019.

Up until now, I haven’t told you anything that hasn’t been widely known (outside of AP, I mean). The lesser-known aspect, outside of the state, is the amazing palace intrigue of the YSR family that will put any TV series to shame! This article intends to bring out recent happenings in this family that covers murder, betrayal, religion, and ofcourse politics!

YSR’s own brother – Y.S.Vivekananda Reddy

Y.S.Vivekananda Reddy was murdered in March 2019. On April 16, 2022 - the CBI arrested Y.S.Viveka's cousin brother - Y.S.Bhaskar Reddy as the main conspirator behind this murder! Bhaskar Reddy's son, Avinash Reddy is the current YSRCP MP from the Kadapa constituency. Kadapa constituency has been the traditional stronghold of the YSR family – YSR represented it from 1989 to 1999. Y.S.Viveka represented it from 1999 to 2009. Y.S.Jagan represented it from 2009 to 2014. For the first time, someone outside of the direct bloodline of YSR, was announced as a candidate and he won both in 2014 and 2019 from YSRCP party.

That MP, Y.S.Avinash Reddy, is also named by the CBI as the co-conspirator in the murder of YSR’s own brother. How come someone outside the direct bloodline of YSR was made to represent Kadapa in 2014 (and in 2019)? Enter Y.S.Jagan’s wife – Y.S.Bharati.  Y.S.Bharati’s mother and Y.S.Avinash Reddy’s father are siblings!

What is the CBI case? That Mr. Y.S.Bhaskar Reddy conspired along with his son, and hired goons to hack Y.S.Vivekananda to death. Bhaskar Reddy and his son worked towards defeating Viveka in 2017 MLC elections. And that Y.S.Avinash Reddy was amongst the first at the scene and declare to the press that this was a death by heart attack!

Currently, the case still isn’t solved. Jagan, who was in opposition when the murder happened, demanded a CBI enquiry. After becoming CM, he strongly opposed it. Y.S. Viveka's daughter had to approach the High Court to get a CBI enquiry done. She submitted a damning petition to the Court, on Jagan. All these years, Jagan routinely did an emotional drama in the Assembly with some filmy dialogues. With the damning CBI chargesheet out, it reflected very poorly on Jagan that he continues to shelter the very family that killed his own uncle. Will it have electoral impact? Time will tell!

YSR’s daughter – Y.S.Sharmila

After Y.S.Jagan quit the Congress, he continued his yatra across the state. The yatra was titled Odarpu Yatra (Condolence Visits) – he claimed to be visiting the homes of the people who died unable to bear the news of YSR’s death! Jagan was arrested by the CBI in corruption cases, and that’s when his sister Y.S.Sharmila entered the fray! She continued to walk in this yatra (walked ~3000 kms over 10 months in 2012-13) and deliver political speeches for the entire duration that Jagan was in jail. Though she campaigned in both, she didn’t contest the 2014 and 2019 elections.

Suddenly in early 2021, Sharmila announced that she has had huge differences with Jagan and is not on talking terms with him anymore. In leaked reports and in a detailed interview, we got to know some details of the unsavoury arguments that happened between Jagan and Sharmila. She announced the setting up of a new party in Telangana – the YSRTP. She yet again walked 3000 kms in Telangana but her party remained a dud. She eventually merged it with the Congress party, and is now appointed as the President of the Andhra Pradesh Congress.

As soon as she was appointed, the loyal soldiers of Y.S.Jagan started attacking her with fierce language on social media. This led to a furious Sharmila spilling more beans about their feud – which further led to Jagan’s portrayal in a very bad light. She also claimed that she has 50% share in the family newspaper and channel – Sakshi. All along, people assumed that this was fully owned by Jagan himself. Though Sharmila’s appointment will not revive a dead Congress in the state, her utterances in response to the attack from Jagan’s party are bound to help the opposition TDP-Jana Sena combine. Jagan’s image of being a caring human has already taken a beating with the CBI case on the murder of his uncle. With his sister now revealing hitherto unheard titbits, the elections just heated up more!

YSR’s wife – Y.S.Vijayamma

Though not a politician, she was the one who contested the Pulivendula MLA seat that YSR represented. Along with her daughter, Sharmila, she was instrumental in the YSRCP winning 15 out of 18 bypoll seats in June 2012, when Jagan was in jail. Jagan made her the Honorary President of YSRCP. However, when the feud between her son and daughter happened, she took the side of her daughter Sharmila. She resigned from the post of Honorary President of YSRCP and moved her base to stay close with her daughter Y.S.Sharmila. She resigned at a public meeting of the YSRCP cadre and the cold vibes with which Jagan handled the entire situation was there for everyone to see. The entire family recently met for the engagement of Sharmila’s son and the cold vibes at the group picture became the talk of the media for a full day!

Where does all of this leave Y.S.Jagan?

For the Sankranthi festival, Y.S.Jagan spent nearly 1.5 crores worth of public money to build a temple set in his house. He had to do this because his wife, Y.S.Bharati, does not go to temples (In case you folks didn’t know – the entire family are practicing staunch Christians). This led to a political slugfest on how he is splurging money for erecting sets at his home just to accommodate his wife’s wishes. Y.S.Bharati is also his business partner in almost all of his businesses (Bharati Cements is named after her. Jagati publications, that runs the family newspaper & channel, is a word combination of Jagan and Bharati…and so on!)

In 2019 elections, YSRCP had continuously campaigned that Chandrababu Naidu had backstabbed his own father-in-law, NTR. In contrast, Y.S.Jagan was portrayed as this loving son, doting brother and all that. That image lies shattered now. Jagan is just 52 years of age, so he will continue to play a prominent role in the politics of AP atleast for 2 more decades. The family intrigue only promises to become more intriguing!

How the Modi government corrected and strategically implemented Sonia’s shoddily drafted Andhra Pradesh Reorganisation Act of 2014

 

The following article was written for OpIndia. Pasting it here for reference:

The Andhra Pradesh Reorganisation Act, 2014 has not only resulted in the splitting of erstwhile Andhra Pradesh into two states, Telangana and Andhra Pradesh, but has also been the cause of two historical events in the country’s polity.

The infamous pepper spray incident in the Lok Sabha occurred when this bill was tabled in the Lok Sabha in February 2014. Desperate to not have it passed, a Congress MP, Lagadapati Rajagopal, pulled out a pepper spray from his pocket and unleashed it on hapless members of the 15^th Lok Sabha. Sonia Gandhi had to suspend her own members from the Lok Sabha to enable the passage of her own government’s bill.

Everyone remembers the now famous line by Modi in 2018, while replying to the No-Confidence Motion (NCM) against his government – “I wish the opposition all the best in bringing the same motion in 2023 too”! The misgivings surrounding the implementation of the AP Reorg Act was the primary reason that led to this no-confidence motion!

The drafting of the act was so careless and shoddy that the Modi government had to redraw the boundaries of the two states, in its very first cabinet meeting in May 2014. The urgency was to ensure that there are no issues for the official bifurcation to happen on June 2^nd, 2014. Over the next 10 years, it became the responsibility of the Narendra Modi government to clean up many shoddy aspects of this mess, and meet the 10 year deadline that UPA put on multiple projects.

The Thirteenth Schedule of this Act promises 13 different educational institutions – 11 in Andhra Pradesh and 2 in Telangana. This was done to make up for the lack of good institutes outside of the Hyderabad region. As we can see in the table below, the Narendra Modi government has either approved or established all these institutes in these 10 years.

All institutes started imparting classes within a year of getting approvals. The last approval came for the Tribal University in Telangana in October 2023. Unfriendly media tried to make a mountain out of molehill for certain aspects of these approvals, just to make Chandrababu Naidu look good, but you can see from the table that most institutes were functioning in the first term of NDA itself (though they had 10 years of time to just approve!).

The second aspect of the Thirteenth Schedule is a shining example of how carelessly Sonia Gandhi’s government prepared the Act and left it to Modi to clean it up. The Act promised three infrastructure projects as mentioned in the table below:

A vague definition that NHAI will improve road connectivity in interior areas of Telangana was promised in the Act. Little would Sonia Gandhi have realised that Narendra Modi will simply transform the road infrastructure in entire India, leave alone Telangana. A whopping INR 1,00,000/- crores was spent on just roads for Telangana (out of which NHAI spent 75,000 crores!). The next promise is for a 4000 MW NTPC plant. Modi government approved this in 2016 and Phase-1 (with 1600MW) is already operational.

We now come to the promise that was not fulfilled – “The Government of India shall develop a new major port in Duggirajapatnam, Andhra Pradesh”. In the year 2012, Congress’s own Chief Minister recommended that a port cannot be built in Duggirajapatnam. In the year 2013, UPA government’s own technical committee concluded that a port is not viable here because of environmental issues and more importantly will be a hassle for ISRO’s launch center in Sriharikota. Yet, Sonia Gandhi decides to promise development of a port at this very town.

NITI Aayog gives another attempt – and concludes that in addition to clearance issues, it just doesn’t make sense to have a major port so close to the Chennai (80 kms), Ennore (80 kms) and Krishnapatnam (40 kms)! The project therefore had to be shelved. The state government tried to establish another port at a town called Ramayapatnam but isn’t pursuing it any further. It’s really sad how Sonia Gandhi, knowingly promised something that she knew wasn’t recommended by anyone.

The shoddy job doesn’t end here. The Thirteenth schedule promises a lot of “feasibility studies” for multiple infrastructure projects, as listed out in the table below.

 

Yet another vague promise of “improving rail and road connectivity between Vijayawada and Hyderabad” was made. Today, we have excellent road connectivity not just between these two cities, but across the entire two states. The investments in railways also ensured better connectivity not just between these two cities, but in the entire two states. Little did Sonia Gandhi realise at that time, that Modi will transform connectivity in India like never before!

A promise was made to merely do a “feasibility study” of expanding existing 3 airports and making them international too (while one was already International!). Modi went multiple steps further – expanded 2 of the other airports to international; gave approvals to 3 new greenfield airports; added 1 new airport to UDAN and approved the expansion of another new airport! Little did Sonia Gandhi realise Modi will transform our transport sector like this in India, leave alone Telangana!

Feasibility studies were promised, within 6 months, for 4 projects - steel plants at Khammam in Telangana and Kadapa in Andhra Pradesh; for greenfield refinery; and for rail coach factory. All feasibility reports have concluded that none of these projects are viable in nature! Sonia Gandhi’s chicanery in portraying a mere promise of “feasibility study” as a promise of actual implementation is simply unparalleled. So technically while the Modi government fulfilled the promise of conducting feasibility studies for all projects, he has faced a lot of (unfair) flak for actually not establishing unviable projects! Even then, the Modi government wanted to work with the state governments for alternate sites for these projects, but the state governments showed no interest.

The vagueness does not extend to just Educational Institutes and Infrastructure projects. Section 94 of the Act gives a vague promise of fiscal incentives “as necessary”. This can literally mean anything under the sun! The Modi government has made a meaningful implementation of this vague promise by funding backward districts in both states and providing other incentives, as listed out in the table below.

There was a vague promise of financial support for the capital city – the Modi government released INR 1500 crores for this too (the High Court, Secretariat and Assembly were built with these funds, in addition to drainage systems too). In addition to what was promised, the Modi government established institutes and projects that were not promised in the act too.

 

If you are not from Andhra Pradesh, you would now be wondering what exactly is the problem when Modi government fulfilled all promises and more! The core issue was the promised Special Status to Andhra Pradesh on the floor of the Rajya Sabha by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh (but not included in the Act). He assured the special status for 5 years (2014 to 2019).

Venkaiah Naidu from the BJP told the house that when BJP comes to power, they will extend this to 10 years. Special Status for 10 years was sold as the panacea for all ills that will befall AP when the split happens. This was sold by the BJP, TDP and Jana Sena parties in the run-up to 2014 elections. After the elections, because of recommendations from the 14^th Finance Commission, the Modi government did not give the promised special status but instead gave a special package.

This did not go well with the people of Andhra Pradesh who were already emotionally charged up. No amount of factual discourse helped create a sense of confidence amongst the people. It was a promise broken – no two ways about it, but the remedial measures were good. It was a double failure not to communicate them properly.

However, this broken promise should not be an excuse to forget the shoddy and perhaps dangerous way in which the state was split. We should never forget how Congress MPs had to form a ring around the country’s Home Minister in the Lok Sabha, to prevent an attack from other Congress MPs; how violence was employed by Congress MPs in the Lok Sabha; how Congress Cabinet ministers did not have access to the Act before it came to the Cabinet; how the Home Minister of India stood up and said that though he is supposed to own the Bill, he will relegate that responsibility to another minister Jairam Ramesh because he drafted the bill; and how the live telecast of Lok Sabha was cut off when the bill was put to vote! Sonia Gandhi’s lack of respect for process and norms resulted in one of the most badly prepared split of a state.

The Act is so badly drafted that even now there are unresolved issues between the Telangana and AP state governments (For example, Jairam Ramesh failed to list 12 institutions whose assets have to be distributed between the states and now they are fighting for them!). Let’s hope that India never has such careless people at it’s helm again. 

 

BJP Keeps Rumour Mills Buzzing About Alliance in Andhra Pradesh

The following article was written for MyInd Makers. Pasting it here for reference:

The ABN Andhrajyothy media group in the Telugu states has strange loyalties. Their MD, Vemuri Radhakrishna (popularly known as RK) is a die hard TDP fan in Andhra Pradesh. He is now a Revanth Reddy fan in Telangana. He knows Revanth Reddy from his TDP days and with even TDP cadre celebrating Revanth’s ascent to the post of Chief Minister from the Congress party, it is infact no surprise that RK provides a great platform for elevating Revanth Reddy. The only common factor between both the states for RK is that he is virulently anti-Modi. His channel even conducted a show asking if AP should break away from India, just because Venkaiah Naidu was not made the President of India!

It is election season now. RK has become restless on who BJP will ally with, in the Telugu states. The TDP is desperate for an alliance with the BJP. But RK has published articles saying that it is the BJP that is calling the TDP back into NDA. Andhra Pradesh presents a strange conundrum for alliances. Film Star Pawan Kalyan’s Jana Sena Party (JSP) allied with the BJP after the 2019 elections. When Chandrababu Naidu was arrested in 2023, JSP announced that it will ally with the TDP for 2024 elections because now there is only aim – defeat Jagan Mohan Reddy’s YSRCP. JSP announced this while being in alliance with the BJP!

Pawan Kalyan has publicly mentioned many times that he will try to convince the BJP to join the alliance. Chandrababu Naidu made many moves to get closer to the BJP once again. Amidst all this, ABN group’s RK thinks that is TDP’s divine right to get back into the NDA; that is the BJP’s responsibility to get TDP back into the NDA; that any kind of support to Jagan amounts to being a monster!

The people of Andhra Pradesh voted for Jagan, overwhelmingly in 2019 (151/175 seats were won by him!). It is well known that Prime Minister Narendra Modi will work closely with any elected Chief Minister of any state. ABN group’s RK had many problems even with that aspect – he went on to say that Modi is protecting Jagan at the cost of Andhra Pradesh!

On Sunday, February 18^th, RK published a Telugu article on the front page of his newspaper, in Andhra Pradesh. He claimed that while BJP asked TDP for an alliance; the YSRCP is desperate for an alliance with the BJP! He claims that Jagan rushed to Delhi to meet the PM, after the Home Minister met Chandrababu Naidu. RK claims that if BJP is on Jagan’s side, then the Election Commission of India will also be on Jagan’s side! They will allow him to manipulate voter list and also allow him to distribute money! These kinds of blasphemous comments are not new to RK anyway, but it’s still shocking how he makes such statements.

RK is upset that BJP is playing a waiting game on alliances and not yet declaring their alliance with the TDP. He is more restless than TDP themselves perhaps. Or maybe he is portraying TDP’s restlessness through his articles. Either way, it’s strange how he wants the BJP-TDP alliance to happen and continues to badmouth BJP!

While this has been his argument for the Andhra Pradesh edition of the newspaper, he wrote a different tune for the Telangana edition! He claims that the BRS is desperate for an alliance with the BJP. He claims that Revanth Reddy is gaining good marks for his governance (it’s been just 2 months!) and this is unsettling both the BRS and BJP. They don’t want Revanth to be the CM for 5 years, so if they ensure Congress gets minimal seats in the Lok Sabha from Telangana, then the government may fall. RK says that the BJP-BRS-MIM combine has 54 seats in the assembly and only need 6 people more to support them!

This mindless analysis is hilarious. Firstly, why would the BJP ally with MIM? Secondly, why would Revanth Reddy keep quiet if attempts are made to destabilise his government by BRS? Is it outside of the realm of possibility that MIM will actually end up supporting Congress and get more things done for their community? RK is clearly attempting to play a mind game that will favour Revanth Reddy. This rumour that the BJP and BRS have an understanding, damaged the prospects of BJP during the 2023 Assembly elections. They want to play the same mind game again, so that Revanth Reddy wins a large number of seats in Telangana for the Lok Sabha. BJP’s state president and Union Minister Kishan Reddy has already quashed these rumours. There is really no way a BJP-BRS alliance can happen in Telangana. It will be more damaging than it even sounds!

As of now, the BJP hasn’t revealed whom it will ally with in Andhra Pradesh. Many rumours indicate that they will ally with TDP+JSP in Andhra Pradesh. Categorical statements have been made by leadership that there will be no alliance in Telangana. RK has played a pivotal role in the spreading of rumours against the BJP, in favour of the TDP and the Congress. He continues to do so. One day, some strong leader from these two states must chide him strongly for his irresponsible journalism.

‘The Hindu’ talks about “many lows” of 17th Lok Sabha, here is why the 17th Lok Sabha was only about many highs, not lows

 The following article was written for OpIndia. Pasting it here for reference:

The Hindu published an article today (February 14^th, 2024) pompously titled “The many lows of the 17^th Lok Sabha”. They frequently used the terms “a new low”, “all time low”, “the lowest” to quantify certain data points that suits this false narrative. For even non-serious students of policy, law, politics and legislation, it is as evident as daylight that the 17^th Lok Sabha is the most historic Lok Sabha that transformed an archaic Indian law into a modern, relevant and long lasting one.

Did you know that in the year 2019, for the first time ever in our independent history, the Modi government in the 17^th Lok Sabha enacted a law that gives special protection to Transgenders? The Transgender Persons (Protection of Rights) Act 2019 prohibits unfair treatment to transgenders and makes them equal in law to the other two genders. Normally, you would have seen the woke crowd celebrating this Act but instead they would rather want to call this a “new low”.

Did you know that India did not have any law against doping in sports? Until the 17^th Lok Sabha passed the National Doping Act?  While ofcourse the act lists out punishments for doping (I still can’t believe we didn’t have a law before 2021!) and establishes an agency that will oversee this, this act also ensures that we do not have to depend on foreign agencies for doping related results/actions. Surely, an act that establishes punishment for getting “high” cannot be a “new low” for the 17^th Lok Sabha!

Male and Female infertility is on the rise. And therefore, medical institutes offering various solutions to this problem are also on the rise. Did you know that India did not have a law that governs both Surrogacy and Assisted Reproduction? Until the 17^th Lok Sabha passed the Surrogacy Regulation Act, 2020 and Assisted Reproductive Technology Regulation Act, 2020. It is fairly common knowledge to understand how women can be taken advantage of and how this will impact their health. Yet, it took a Modi government to bring in laws to regulate unethical practices and provide a legal backing to women. An “all time low”, eh?

Until the 17^th Lok Sabha stepped up to achieve a “new low”, the law in India was that you can only enroll as a voter if you complete 18 years on or before January 1^st. Meaning, if you complete 18 years on Jan 2, 2020 - you will be eligible to vote only in 2021 and not in the entire 2020! That silly law has now been changed, again by the 17^th Lok Sabha!

The 17^th Lok Sabha strengthened the rights and lives of both employers and employees, by enacting Code for Social Security 2020, Code of Wages 2019, Industrial Relations code 2020, Occupational Safety, Health and Working Conditions Code 2020. You may wonder how these laws will impact lives of normal people? While stooping to an “all time low”, the 17^th Lok Sabha has ensured that minimum wage has been generalized to all sectors now; overtime pay is mandatory; more money saved for your future; there is clarity on fixed-term employment & trade union rules; there is gratuity eligibility for short periods; eases rules for lay-offs; allows for more flexibility in eligibility for leaves; special provisions for certain worker types; and increased focus on health of workers!

The English media never focussed on such game changing laws that were enacted by the 17^th Lok Sabha. You may have noticed that I haven’t even touched about the much bigger and much larger generational transforming laws that the 17^th Lok Sabha witnessed and enacted. Who can ever forget that the impeccable manner in which the dreaded Article 370 was abolished in August 2019, during the 17^th Lok Sabha? The transformation that is bought to the lives of people in J&K and Ladakh, and more importantly the transformation it bought to the psyche of our country can never be quantified, much less classify it as a “new low”!

The 17^th Lok Sabha increased the age of marriage from 18 to 21. Surely, a “new low”.  The 17^th Lok Sabha enacted the modern Telecommunications Act 2023, and the Digital Data Protection Act – something that is very relevant to this century atleast. The 17^th Lok Sabha enacted the much awaited, much delayed Women’s Reservation Bill. Post the next delimitation exercise we will have 1/3^rd of seats reserved for women and therefore see an increased participation of women in law making. How can anything that increases participation get classified into a “new low”?

The 17^th Lok Sabha rewrote our entire Indian Penal Code, Criminal Procedure Code and the Evidence Act – and enacted the brand new, fully relevant and modern criminal laws Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita 2023, and the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita 2023. The Bharatiya Sakshya Bill 2023, equally transformational in nature, has been referred to a standing committee for now. In a couple of years, all these three pivotal laws will be implemented and used for generations to come. How is it possible to reduce the passing of such transformational acts to a mere statistic?

And the largest of all reforms – India’s Parliament moved into a much bigger, spacious and better building. The pride with which the nation watched the Prime Minister of India take the Sengol and install it on the Lok Sabha Speaker’s podium can never be quantified into mere statistics. It is very evident that the “new lows” that The Hindu wanted to paint pale in comparison to the “multiple highs” that the 17^th Lok Sabha has achieved. No one anticipated that the 17^th Lok Sabha will transform not just the 5 years of its term, but will rewrite laws that will transform generations. The Hindu’s article though, can easily be classified as a “new low” even by the low standards of The Hindu! 

Decoding how PM Modi hacks EVMs, Part 2: Why Sonia Gandhi had a problem with MNREGA reforms and how Modi revolutionised employment, labour sector

 The following article was written for OpIndia. Pasting it here for reference:

In June 2020, Sonia Gandhi wrote to Prime Minister Narendra Modi that he is trying to give the Mahatma Gandhi National Employment Guarantee Act (MNREGA) “a new appearance, by integrating it with the Prime Minister’s pet programmes like Swacchh Bharat and Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana.”

I was wondering what is the problem if MNREGA is being “integrated” with other programs. MNREGA is an employment guarantee program. Awas Yojana is a house construction program. Both are government programs. If employment is being provided so that houses can be constructed, how exactly does that amount to giving a “new appearance”? If employment is being provided to keep the country clean (Swachh Bharat), then how does that amount to giving a “new appearance”? Think about it - Isn’t it really efficient if MNREGA is used to speed up the various infrastructure projects of the country? So, what exactly is the problem?!

The answer to all these questions is provided by Sonia Gandhi herself in the later part of her letter. “The panchayats, empowered by Rajiv Gandhi’s path-breaking initiatives, must be brought centre-stage as the MGNREGA is not a centralized program.” 

Ah, so the issue is that the funds are distributed at a district level than at a panchayat level. Sonia Gandhi was preferring that people dig holes and then fill them in their village, in an infinite loop. Instead, Prime Minister Modi decided to pay to construct houses in other areas of their district, and then later he will allot the same houses for them to live in. This will obviously be a problem for the Congress party no!

Taking a cue from Sonia Gandhi, communist leader Brinda Karat wrote that the “The scheme should not be diluted in the name of the Garib Kalyan Rojgar Abhiyaan”. Infact, Brinda Karat even tells us that the months of May and June 2020 when COVID lockdown effects were at their worst, the employment through MNREGA was “much higher when compared to the same months last year”!

In an attempt to ridicule Prime Minister Modi’s efforts, Sonia Gandhi and Brinda Karat inadvertently end up praising him for making the program more meaningful and impactful. Prime Minister Modi tactfully modified this program to include construction of houses, toilets and other infrastructure at a district level. The beneficiary list for these infrastructure programs runs into crores, and I need not elaborate further as to why they will vote for Modi on election day!

If you thought these were the only reforms bought into the employment-guarantee MNREGA, then you are mistaken. Corruption was weeded out by bring in new rules. Infact, this report suggests how Bihar government had to weed out nearly 1.23 crores inactive cards before the central government released any more funds to that state. Modi government has considerably increased the spending on MNREGA over the years.

The green bars in the graph below represent the actual amounts released till 2023 (which have often been much higher than the initial estimates in the budget (blue bars)). The COVID years have seen the highest ever allotments. This is money that has gone directly to the accounts of the beneficiaries, and not down the drain! Now, imagine folks – why wouldn’t all these beneficiaries want to vote for Modi on election day?

The labour or employment reforms don’t stop at just the MNREGA. To help give social security benefits such as accidental and life insurance to workers of the unorganised sector, e-SHRAM card project was launched. A total of nearly 2.9 crore cards were issued to workers in the unorganised sector. Take a look at the registrations across the unorganised sectors, that is publicly available to view on their website. Is it therefore any wonder that many of these crores of people will vote for Modi?

You would now be tempted to ask the obvious. What about the organised sector? What did the Modi do there? Speaking in the Lok Sabha in February of 2023, Prime Minister Narendra Modi told us a startling figure – the past 10 years have seen an addition of 18 crore new entries into EPFO!

If you are an employee, I really don’t have to explain to you the importance of being enrolled into the Employee Provident Fund. You can nitpick, but 18 crore additions in 10 years basically means an average of 1.8 crore new jobs or formalisation every single year (plus a fund on which you will get a 8% return year-over-year, until your retirement!). So many jobs don’t get automatically created without an active government working to create such a positive environment.

 In addition, the Prime Minister announced a massive recruitment of 10 lakh jobs in 18 months, starting October 2022. Within 6 months of that announcement, nearly 3 lakhs appointments were already made! Outside of these recruitments, the government also announced a brilliant short-term scheme – the Agniveer scheme. Here’s a brilliant article on OpIndia on why the Agniveer scheme is very important for India. The Congress opposed this very strongly and even tried to create unrest in the country. This very fact is enough to understand the brilliance of the Agniveer scheme.

Not stopping at these reforms, the Modi government has enacted 4 new Labour and Industrial laws that strengthen both employers and employees - minimum wage has been generalized to all sectors now; overtime pay is mandatory; more money saved for future; much needed clarity on fixed-term employment & trade union rules; gratuity eligibility for short periods; easing rules for lay-offs; more flexibility in eligibility for leaves; special provisions for certain worker types; increased focus on health of workers!

With so many benefits that workers see in their day-to-day life because of so much work by Prime Minister Modi’s government, is it any wonder that most of them will want to vote for him? In the first article of this series “How Modi hacks EVMs”, we had discussed about the impact on small scale entrepreneurs and industries. In this article, we have discussed about the impact on unorganised and organised sector employees. The series will continue to other areas, one after the other!

 

Rajdeep Sardesai says ‘States being penalised for better demographic, economic performance’: How he is wrong and made a fool of himself again

 

The following article was written for OpIndia. Pasting it here for reference:

After receiving a lashing over his hypocrisy (yet again) yesterday, Rajdeep Sardesai woke up to a fresh day wanting to receive the same kind of lashing again. In his infinite quest to sound intellectual about the economy, he blurted out multiple lies in a single tweet. These lies were not borne out of ignorance. They were written out of obedience to his pay masters.

First, he blurts out numbers. That “For every rupee that Maharashtra, TN, Gujarat, UP give centre”, how much do they “get back”. There cannot be a bigger lie than claiming that the states give any money to the centre!

Residents of India, living ofcourse in different states, pay Income Tax/Other taxes to the Government of India. The state governments have no role to play in this collection. Government of India can impose cess and excise duties for income only to GoI and is not duty bound to transfer this to states. Government of India obviously needs money for developmental works, salaries, defence of the country etc.

Likewise, residents of a particular state pay taxes to that particular state government (On Fuel, Liquor, Land, Registrations etc and SGST). For example, in Hyderabad today, the Telangana government earns more per litre on petrol than what the Government of India earns. In addition to this revenue, the Government of India devolves 41% of income received through taxes to the state governments – meaning transfers cash to the state governments.

How is this decided? This is decided through a formula that the Finance Commission provides. The 14^th and 15^th FC were constituted during Modi’s term. The government of India provides terms of reference to the Finance Commission, based on which they come up with a formula that the government is duty bound to implement.

Rajdeep Sardesai claims that states are being “penalised” for “better demographic and economic performance”. Nothing can be farther from the truth. Take a look yourself at how the 15^th FC actually rewards states that have done well on demography and tax effort.

Modi government’s tax efforts have been so robust that in 9 years, a whopping 69.6 lakh crore rupees were devolved to the states as opposed to a parltry 18.5 lakh crores by Sonia Gandhi’s UPA in 10 years.

So, when someone says “Telangana gave 3.68 lakh crores to centre”, it does NOT mean that the government of Telangana did so. It is the residents of Telangana paying their tax to the Government of India. For the taxes that residents of Telangana pay to the government of Telangana, imagine how awkward it will sound if we say “Telangana gave 50,000 crores to Telangana government”!

Rajdeep then suddenly jumps to “Flood hit opposition ruled states and drought hit Karnataka”. We had written a very detailed article back in 2019 itself, when this sick ilk was spreading falsehoods on disaster management. We discussed on how the Modi government enchanced relief for major cyclones like Fani, Titli, Gaja, the Kerala floods. But more importantly, we had highlighted the significant reforms that Prime Minister Modi bought into the National and State Disaster Fund management.

After the Modi government came into power, the total value of funds made available in SDRF for the period of the 14th Finance Commission (2015 to 2020) was increased from the previous INR 33,580 crores to INR 61,220 crores. That’s a startling 88% more money available for any kind of disaster relief.

Rajdeep then suddenly jumps to “Bengal claims MNREGA funds denied”. While on Bengal, remember how Mamata Banerjee even refused to talk to the Prime Minister when cyclone Fani hit the coast and yet money was released to West Bengal by the central government? We digress. Let’s come back to MNREGA. Why is Bengal the only state that has a problem? A good journalist would have done some homework around this, but then Rajdeep is neither good nor a journalist.

In 2022, there were only two state governments who were awaiting a massive amount from the central government – Bihar (1067 crores) and West Bengal (2620 crores). By May 2023, we were informed that Bihar government cancelled a massive 1.23 crore cards because…guess what…they were inactive for years! 

As of October 2023, West Bengal is yet to follow the directives and guidelines that the central government has laid down. West Bengal is the only state in the entire country that refuses to follow the rules regarding MNREGA and Rajdeep does not have the guts to ask Mamata Banerjee why this is the case. Instead, he will blame Modi for Mamata government’s inefficiency.

Just so you all are aware, the overall funds that the Modi government has released to all states in MNREGA has shown a phenomenal, with the highest allocation being done in the COVID year.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi made a powerful 4 minute speech on this “My Tax My Wish” argument – what if the Himalayas says Ganga only belongs to me? Why does the hand go to help the leg when a thorn injures it? Many netizens have often asked where will this argument stop? Will taxes paid by residents of Hyderabad used only for Hyderabad? Will taxes paid by residents of your gated community used only for your gated community? Will the tax you pay be used exclusively for you?

Can a Telangana construct so much if not for workers from Bihar? Can a Karnataka develop so much without workers from UP and Odisha? Can a Noida develop so much without workers from Tamil Nadu? Can our hospitality industry flourish so much without our friends from the North eastern states?

Rajdeep Sardesai, Siddarth Varadarajan, Shekhar Gupta, N.Ram, Dhanya Rajendran – all have made fallacious, divisive and silly arguments on the financial front with the aim of fomenting hatred and creating animosity. Politicians who have made these arguments have been taught a lesson at the elections by the people of India. Unfortunate though that these editors still flourish with their lies.

 

Decoding how PM Modi hacks EVMs, Part 1: Expanding focus on small-scale industries from MSME to other ministries – from Vishwakarmas to fishermen

The following article was written for OpIndia. Pasting it here for reference:

I don’t know about you but I am a now very firm believer that Prime Minister Narendra Modi hacks the EVMs (hereinafter, referred to as “The Project”). I first started to believe when I saw a social media post that had a short video of a fellow citizen explaining how this “project” will be done. I then started to study more about how Modi accomplishes the project. I figured it will be a simple mechanism and I can write an article about it. However, the findings are so startling and vast that it looks like we will end up with a series of articles to explain how Modi hacks EVMs.

Take for example how the Vishwakarmas contribute to the project. Wait, first of all, who are these Vishwakarmas? In our ancient scriptures, Vishwakarma is the architect of our gods and is also the deity of our craftsmen. The art of crafting is so large and wide that Prime Minister Modi, for the first time, decided to bring in 18 such tradecrafts under one umbrella, the PM Vishwakarma Yojana, and help improve the skills of the practioners of these crafts shown below.

The eligible Vishwakarmas get collateral-free credit support of upto INR 3 lakhs at 5% interest. Usually, people who are involved in these crafts aren’t eligible for formal loans and end up taking private loans at 18-24% interest. Now, they can get upto 3 lakhs (which is a huge amount) for just 5%, and that too without any collateral. In addition, they get INR 15,000/- as a toolkit incentive, INR 1500 to purchase modern tools and INR 500 per day as a stipend to attend skill development trainings. While the money ofcourse is a prime component, that alone will not inspire these artisans to participate in the project. 

It is the fact that the Prime Minister of India thought about them in the first place. Take a closer look at the trades covered. Imagine the garland makers near your house, the washermen you give your clothes to, the unknown stone breakers who helped build the apartment you stay in, the fishing nets that caught the fish you savour and everyone else in that list above. Imagine them eventually becoming a part of formal economy and imagine how they will feel to be part of a global value chain. In today’s day and age, one does not have to stress on the importance of having a platform to sell your products globally, and imagine having such an opportunity and means to do so. 

This scheme was launched in September 2023 and has already seen nearly 4 lakh artisans getting benefitted (a total of 93 lakh applications have been received!). I think you now understand how, not just these 4 lakh beneficiaries, but most of the 93 lakh applicants, will end up voting for Modi just because he even thought about helping them (something that no PM has thought of, so far!).In the above list, you see that Fishing Net Makers get benefitted. Then you will ask, but what about fisherfolks? The Prime Minister figured that he should involve the fisherfolks in the project too. So, he came up with PM Matsya Sampada Scheme.

Already nearly 6 lakh fisher families get livelihood and nutritional support in their lean fishing periods; 10s of 1000s of fishing related infrastructure (more than 1 lakh nets for seaweed cultivation…who would have thought of that!), cold storages, fishing vessels and many more. I think you now understand how these lakhs of families will willingly become part of the project where they will go and press the relevant button on the EVM, come election day! 

Enough of fishing man! As if there are no other small scale industry related people who need no help. Ofcourse there are. And that’s why Prime Minister Modi came up with PM SVANidhi scheme – PM Street Vendors Atmanirbhar Nidhi scheme. This was introduced during COVID times to help the street vendors, who were one of the worst-hit because of the pandemic. A detailed RBI study has already explained how this scheme has promoted “inclusive entrepreneurship” amongst this group – 44% of whom were women! A total of 57.2 lakh loans, amounting to nearly INR 10,000 crores, were sanctioned as of Oct. 2023, and I really don’t have to explain to you how these people now become part of the project.

 Speaking of women, there is this brilliant scheme called Lakhpati Didi that aims to make 9 crore women associated with the Self Help Groups lakhpatis! It was recently announced that nearly 1 crore of them have already become lakhpatis. I would strongly urge you to watch this beautiful interaction the Prime Minister has with one such group. Imagine 1 crore women being part of the project press that button on EVM! 

The list is long, but it will get boring for you to read about more such schemes that focussed exclusively on small-scale industries, crafts and arts. I mean, the Modi government announced a scheme called NIRVIK that helps small scale exporters with lesser interest rates and better insurance cover! A lot of discussion has already happened around the phenomenally successful MUDRA loans (A whopping INR 23-lakh-crore worth loans given as of March 2023!) and Stand-up India schemes from the first term. 

Often, our discussion around small-scale industries focussed on this one ministry – MSME. The Prime Minister expanded this gambit and involved multiple ministries to focus on small scale industries relevant to their ministries. SVANidhi scheme, for example, is helmed by Housing and Urban Affairs. The whole of government approach is not a rhetorical or theoretical document for Prime Minister Modi – it is implemented across all ministries so that maximum small-scale entrepreneurs are enabled to fly high. Like I said, the list is too long and vast, just talking about the big things done for small-scale industries. You must be tempted to now ask – Great list of things being done entrepreneurs, but what about employees? We will talk about them in the 2^nd article of this series – How Modi hacks EVMs! 

We built a Bhavya Mandir. We will now build a Bhavya Bharat: PM Modi's brilliant speech captures the mood and responsibilities of our generation

 The following article was written for MyInd Makers. Publishing it here for reference:

The enormity of January 22, 2024 needs no explanation. The emotion associated with the event cannot be explained. If you are the chosen one to perform the Pran Pratishtha (what a beautiful term this is), then the scale of the weight you carry on your shoulders needs no explanation either. Akhilesh Mishra eloquently captures here, how Prime Minister Narendra Modi united the entire country through his actions – sharing of Ram Bhajans on his social media accounts; following a stringent 11-day anushtan (ritual) during which he gave up grain and slept on the floor; visiting many temples associated with Shri Ram’s travel in the South; and finally coming to Ayodhya on Jan 22nd for the Pran Pratishtha rituals. After completing all the rituals, the Prime Minister spoke to the people of the country for about 35 minutes.

I don’t know what it is about this particular speech that has captivated me so much. It’s been 2 days and the speech is still occupying a lot of space in my mind and thoughts. Perhaps it is the time at which I watched it (couldn’t watch it live, so watched it in the calmness of early morning hours). Perhaps, it is the expectation that since he might be tired, he may not be able to trigger strong emotions. Perhaps it is the manner in which the message was crafted and then delivered. I don’t know. 

He is 73 years old. He was on a strict fast for 11 days. He had travelled widely in these 11 days too. He took part in rituals that eluded generations for nearly 500 years. And yet, he was not exhibiting a single sign of weakness or fatigue. Was not exhibiting any sign that he was carrying the weight of such an enormous moment. Was not exhibiting a single sign of anxiety that he may falter while speaking on such an occasion. Instead, he was a sign of unbridled energy and unprecedented hope.

Many newspapers reported Modi’s line that Ram is not Fire, Ram is Energy. All newspapers have missed the most important aspect of this line – the context in which he used it. After waxing eloquent about how the return of Ram Lalla to his birth place fills the entire country with happiness and optimism, he referred to how critics scared us saying that the country will be on fire because of the Ram temple. And it is in this context that the Prime Minister told us that Ram is not Fire, Ram is energy. This is when he told us that Ram is not the dispute, Ram is the solution. And that this is the time for us to not feel just victorious but also to feel humble.

The message that followed this exceptional description of who Prabhu Shri Ram is, is yet another section of the speech that will stay in mind for many years to come. Prime Minister Modi has so brilliantly (I know am using this word so many times! Please blame the Prime Minister for it!) reminded us of our duty to now lay the best possible foundation of a Bhavya Bharat for the next 1000 years. He has reminded us of the hope and aspirations, that the new era that has begun now, brings to the crores of Indians. And he has guided us on how we must conduct ourselves to fulfill this responsibility of transforming our country.

The Prime Minister’s speech is not just rhetoric. He has himself led by example in transforming India to a bigger and brighter future. He has made us all his partners in this transformation. The structuring of the speech, the crafting of the message and the modulation of his delivery were all truly outstanding.

Bhakti (Faith) is such a strong emotion. Faith has often solved many problems that would otherwise have never been solved. Faith is a medicine in itself. Prime Minister Modi has made this Bhakti his vehicle to ensure we build a Bhavya Bharat, unparalleled in all its glory, for the next 1000 years. As he rightly pointed out “Yahi samay hai, Sahi Samay hai”. Thank you Prime Minister Modi for such a memorable speech befitting such a memorable occasion. We built a Bhavya Mandir. We will now build a Bhavya Bharat!