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Resource centre on India's rural distress
 
 

A festival of rash promises -Ashok Gulati

-The Indian Express

Both BJP’s PM Kisan and Congress’s Nyay acknowledge that small and marginal farmers and bottom 20 per cent of population have not benefited from current policies. But both schemes raise further questions.

It is time to celebrate the biggest spectacle of democracy on this planet. About 900 million people are eligible to exercise their right to choose their representatives to the Lok Sabha. This festival of democracy will last for about a month-and-a-half. Notwithstanding several shortcomings of democracy, it appears better than dictatorships or centralised communist regimes. China may have done better when it comes to economic growth, but can Indians accept the one-child norm that China enforced between 1981 and 2016? Can there be open dissent in China’s media about its government’s policies as we have on Indian media channels? The obvious answer is no. We can accept a lower growth rate of 7 per cent per annum, compared to China’s 9-10 per cent, but cannot compromise on our democracy, no matter how messy it is.

But a political system must lead to policies that improve people’s welfare. The state’s first duty is to provide security to the lives and property of people. Next, it must eliminate poverty, hunger, and malnutrition. The entire gamut of policies should work towards this fundamental objective. Our record on this front is mixed — the glass is only half full. That should be the central point of the debate in this election.

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