Listening
to Rahul Gandhi during his speeches in Ramlila Ground and in the Parliament
this week, I must admit that one needs more than a thick skin and hypocrisy to
call a Govt. “Suit-Boot Sarkar”, headed by a Prime Minister who has proved his
worth in administration, good governance, economic development and apolitical
progressive outlook in the face of unmatched adversity and sabotage during his
stint as Gujarat Chief Minister for 3 terms and throughout his public life.
Congress Party whose 60 years of misrule and Nehru-Gandhi leadership are
responsible for the economic, social and political mess of this nation, who in
its last 10 years in power run the most corrupt Govt. in India’s history and bedded
every corrupt person/organization, crony
capitalist, black marketer, anti-national & anti-social criminal, this
country could find, want the people of
this nation to forget its past history & track record and believe Rahul Gandhi’s pathetic rhetoric
with crocodile tears that Modi Govt. is
run by a party for industrialists &
business men and that Modi took loan from them to win the last election. From the Jeep scam during Nehru Govt. after independence to the Coalgate scam in 2013, it was the “Suited-Booted”
people who have always funded Congress party and the Nehru-Gandhi family’s
ill-gotten wealth and this country is not ready to believe Rahul Gandhi
anymore. Can Rahul Gandhi, who has
failed to distinguish so far in any form of human activity in his life, answer
if all the PMs from his family since
Nehru to Rajiv Gandhi walked around in
South Block in loin cloth? Even after 66 years of independence- Rahul, Gandhi
family and Congress want rest of India and Indians to remain “Bhookha-Naanga”,
so that only Gandhi family and its chamchas can wear Suit -Boot. Rahul never
felt “Suit-Boot” is evil, when his great
grandfather wore it, stitching in London
with an imported Rose pinned on it every day, he never thought about the same
when his father wore it but when an OBC Prime Minister could dare to wore it,
he felt it is exploitation and disregard to India’s common men. He also never
felt bad, when he was wearing suits & enjoying fancy vacations as youngster
(not that he has stopped that now), while Narendra Modi was a tea seller and later a Swayamshevak in
a pair of shirt and Payjamah. The suit
is a symbol of modernity and empowerment for those who have been shackled by
various social and economic hierarchies. Hence, B.R. Ambedkar always wore suit
for that reason. Actually, Rahul Gandhi, his family and Congress party can’t
tolerate any leader who can see eye to eye with them and walk in the world stage keeping India’s head
high. This is nothing but sheer jealousy and
naked misrepresentation of facts to pull wool over eyes of people of
this nation. Else how can he dare to say such things immediately after his 56
day long “Aam Aadmi’s Sabbatical” abroad?
Even
if Rahul Gandhi conveniently forgets, people of this nation have not - that it
was Jawaharlal Nehru who made land acquisition beyond judicial review and told
the displaced people to make way for the Hirakud Dam saying, "if you are
to suffer, you should suffer in the interest of the country". He also
forgot that his grandmother Indira
Gandhi amended the law to declare that farmers, whose land was taken forcibly
by the Govt. didn’t deserve
"compensation" but only an "amount" because all
landowners were hoarders and exploiters.
He also forgot to remember that the
biggest land grab in India's history happened during his Govt.'s rule,
under the garb of the sham special economic
zones (SEZ). Also, this nation has
not forgotten how UPA Govt. helped the “National Damaad” Robert Vadra to grab
land in prime locations at throw away prices by duping farmers to eventually sell to corporates &
businessmen like DLF owners to make windfall gain. Getting his facts wrong on
the Gujarat Model, Rahul Gandhi made ludicrous claims saying Modi wants to turn
entire India into Gujarat for Land Acquisition forgetting that the Supreme
Court had praised the Gujarat Model of Land Acquisition finding it just,
transparent and corruption free. Perhaps
his tutors forgot to tell him that DIPP
under the UPA rule had hailed Gujarat’s success with Land Acquisition as worthy
of emulation by other states. So what is wrong if Modi is trying to replicate
the same just, transparent and corruption free law every where in the country
to give farmers their due, promote industrial development and jobs to large
number of young Indians. Yes, his new
law will put Robert Vadras of the world out of job and bring economic
development to common men by removing red tape, delay, land hoarding
and justified price, which is making Congress and the other political
parties uneasy who are in the business of
making a career out of keeping India and Indians underdeveloped
economically, socially and politically.
Rahul
pated his own back by saying that Congress led UPA Govt. raised MSP to help
farmers, but what he hide was that it benefited the middle men, hoarders and
politicians more than the poor farmers and was the main reason behind the
spiralling food inflation in the country which resulted in his party reduced to
44 seats in Lok Sabha during the last General Elections. True that it is politically impossible for
any Govt. in a predominantly rural
democracy like India to consistently pay Indian farmers less than global
prices. But domestic MSP for wheat was
raised substantially, year after year, from Rs 650 per quintal in 2006-07 to Rs
1,350 per quintal in 2012-13. Rice and many other food grain prices went up in
a similar way and that stoked food inflation. On one side, middle men and
hoarders of food products profited by creating artificial scarcity of many food
products every year, on the other side farmers never completely got their due
and also had to pay higher prices for buying food and other items. And today, when world wheat and maize prices
have crashed, many Indian farmers now get more than American ones. Further, the
excess procurement by Govt. due to MSP has led to reduced supply in open
market. The CAG report has pointed out that in 2006-2007, 63.3 million tonnes
of rice landed in the open market but by 2011-2012, this had fallen by a huge
23.6% to 48.3 million tonnes. Similarly in 2006-2007, the total amount of wheat
in the open market stood at 62.1 million tonnes, which by 2011-2012,had dropped
to 61.4 million tonnes. Hence, the Govt.
needs to stop procuring more than what it needs to run its various programmes.
And once the Govt. cuts down procurement, it will be beneficial on the fiscal
deficit front as well as help moderate inflation. This becomes even more
important given that the Indian Meteorological Department expects the monsoon
to be below normal at 93% of the long period average. But this can’t happen if
MSP is continuously raised due to political reasons. Hence, it is prudent to go slow on MSP
increases in the coming years leading to a structural solution to food supply
and food inflation, which will benefit of
all people, the common men most.
By
politicising the Land Acquisition bill and MSP issue, actually Rahul Gandhi, Congress and the opposition parties are doing a
disservice to the farmers & the poor and harming the national economy. It is creating an impression that this nation
doesn’t need industry and infrastructure. They are misleading the nation
that agriculture is more important than any
other business and economic activity. The
agricultural Census data clearly bear out the fact that Indian agriculture is
dominated by small and marginal subsistence farmers providing mainly for self
-consumption. In India while land is scarce, there are simply too many people
engaged in land intensive employment activities like agriculture resulting in
low productivity and thereby low wages resulting in lower standard of living.
The proportion of the work force of some 478 million is approximately 52%, 14%
and 34% in agriculture, industry and service sectors respectively in India.
India’s rural population, most of whom work in agriculture account for 71% in
the decade of 2000-2009. At present, the overwhelming majority of farmers earn
very little. So, the only way of economic upliftment of this large population
is to push the low productive, low earning population out of agriculture based
employment activities to industrial and service sectors. This shift in employment
will rebalance the economy by improving the productivity of both the industrial
and agriculture sectors. This will free up land for making it available for
infrastructure, industry and housing resulting in growth of job opportunities
in rural areas – making land sellers benefit both from higher value for their
land and new job opportunities. It’s also important to provide alternate job
opportunities to the landless poor, who are dependent on seasonal agricultural
employment for livelihood. Wages will rise as infrastructure projects start
blooming in the rural areas. This will reduce the pressure of migration to the
cities by making employment in rural areas attractive. This will also lead to
improvement in yield of food grains by use of modern technology and free up
land for cultivation of higher-value crops which will bring greater
remuneration to farmers. The assumption that giving up land will impact food
production/security is completely false. Food production depends on improving
agricultural productivity, which is achieved from land consolidation, use of
improved technology, mechanised farming and more contract (or even corporate)
farming etc. None of it is possible if Indian agriculture is burdened with
supporting so many mouths. Not just industry and infrastructure, even
agricultural growth needs land consolidation by getting people to discard
smaller uneconomic land holdings and move to non-agricultural jobs.
Thus,
Rahul Gandhi has established once again to the nation that either he is a liar
or he has no knowledge about the Land Reform Bill and the various aspects of
our economy. Making speeches just 4 times in 11 years in Parliament does not
reflect the Intellectual capability of the Congress Vice President but it rather
shows what a poor grasp he has on the national issues. So, the best advice
Congress party could give him is to keep quiet and let others think that he is
an idiot rather than to speak and confirm it.
