'Incredibly, the government of India will spend more on this one line than it does on rail safety, Swachh Bharat, schools, highways or health... In every which way, Narendra Modi’s 2014 campaign was spectacular. From communication to ground management, the Bharatiya Janata Party electoral machine, it is widely acknowledged, got it right. However, a year and a half after Modi took office, one aspect of his campaign seems to have been a bit too spectacular altogether.
'This week we once again heard the prime minister and finance minister speak, at a recent media house event in the capital, about how well the economy is doing. The truth is nothing can improve our economic fundamentals till public investment is sharply increased. Manipulating statistics may help manage global headlines for a while, but cannot strengthen our economic fundamentals.
'The BJP’s victory in the Lok Sabha election of 2014 was the result of a strategy that concentrated single-mindedly on building up Narendra Modi as a national leader who could salvage India from what the media projected as the mess created by the Congress Party during the previous three or four years. That regime was marred by corruption scandals and a pervasive sense that Manmohan Singh had failed to rein in corrupt ministers and allies.
'Relations between Nepal and India have frozen over what continues to be an impasse over the Himalayan nation’s Constitution. The blockade continues with the anti-India sentiment in Nepal soaring as the country faces an acute shortage of cooking gas, fuel, and life saving medicines. China has come to the rescue and signed agreements with Nepal for the supply of cooking gas and fuel.
'The fears are coming true. Earlier this year, activists had warned the Modi government that its decision to slash funds for India’s oldest supplementary nutrition scheme for vulnerable women and children would prove a disaster. But the government paid little heed. Now the ripples are being felt on the ground. Children aren’t getting their hot meals regularly, nor are grassroots workers receiving their wages on time.
'The strident campaign against cow slaughter will have an adverse impact on the leather industry, which employs close to 2.5 million people, mostly Dalits... There is no cause to believe that the decisive defeat of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)’s communal and caste politics in Bihar will mean an end to its vicious campaign against cow slaughter. The online threat from a Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) official’s twitter handle to retailers to stop selling goods made of cow hide is clear evidence.
'...Travelling hundreds of kilometres to different corners of Bihar this election, I met many voters expressing disenchantment with the Modi government. Referendum is a strong word, but voters were clear in judging the BJP’s campaign with its performance so far at the centre. Voters complained, most of all, of food inflation. Thanks to falling oil prices, overall inflation has been under control since Modi became India’s prime minister. But rising prices of certain food products have pushed the retail inflation higher in the last few months.
'From inflation to social sector spending to reforms, Prime Minister Narendra Modi's speech at the Delhi Economic Conclave has proved that Truth is dead... Truth would have also gone on to point to the soaring prices of pulses (with arhar dal selling at an unprecedented Rs. 200 a kg). Imagine that? Truth would have also dared to talk about what an ASSOCHAM report said (the report said that prices of brinjal, onions, cucumbers and tomatoes have become much costlier, while the prices of fruits have increased by 40-45 per cent).
'Referring to the “ethnic tensions” in the wake of controversies over beef and other issues, Moody’s Friday said that Prime Minister Narendra Modi must keep BJP members in check or risk losing “losing domestic and global credibility”, reported Press Trust of India. Stating that BJP does not have a majority in Rajya Sabha to pass crucial reforms and the Opposition was being ‘obstructionist’, Moody’s Analytics said in a report that the government has also not helped itself in recent times with controversial comments from various BJP members.
'India's main program to fight child malnutrition has been hit by budget cuts that make it difficult to pay wages of millions of health workers, a cabinet minister said on Monday in a rare public criticism of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's policies. Modi's government in February slashed social sector budgets to boost infrastructure spending in a bid to fasten the pace of economic recovery. States were asked to fill the gap from the larger share of federal taxes they receive from New Delhi.
