By Paramjit Bakhshi
Years ago, a cousin shared an apt analogy when he likened India to an overcrowded bus. He said that as long as the bus is stationary everybody jostles to get a better seat or even a little space. Arguments and even fights begin. Tempers flare, and people even reach for each other’s throats. However, once the bus begins to move people learn to adjust. It needs to be acknowledged that a lack of resources is often the prime cause of unrest, whether it be within a family or in a nation. Many disputes get resolved once the financial situation, or what we call the economy of a country, improves. The pie gets larger, and more people partake of it.
This can be validated with a real-life example. In 2014, some of us from Shillong undertook a road trip from Delhi to Leh, passing through Srinagar among other places. Upon entering Srinagar, we happened to overtake a car with a JK number plate. This enraged the driver possibly because our vehicle bore a Delhi number. This vehicle overtook us, and came to stop in the middle of the road. Four burly men got out and began marching threateningly towards us. Luckily for us, I was not driving at the time and my co driver, a lady was at the wheel. When they saw her, a short fair woman with very alien features they were at a loss. After shouting a bit, they retreated and we could proceed. At that time there were hardly any tourists there. Today in spite of all the doomsday predictions about the abrogation of Article 370, lakhs of tourists have a safe sojourn in Kashmir. When we went, shopkeepers and restaurant owners cribbed about how terrorism had destroyed their businesses. Today they are reaping a windfall. One sees pictures of the renovated Polo View Market open at night and the infamous Lal Chowk is no longer a no-go zone, it was then. The moving economic bus has had a sobering effect.
Similar apprehensions were expressed when the current dispensation at the Centre decided to encourage digital transactions. I remember P Chidambram, raving about the impossibility of such a task. Verbatim, this is what he said in Parliament, “Go to a village fair buy potatoes and tomatoes and pay seven rupees and fifty paise by credit card. What will the poor lady do? Does she have a POS machine there? Is it connected to a electricity source? Is there Wi-Fi there? Is the internet working there? What kind of a false picture you are presenting?” This gentleman an MBA from the prestigious Harvard Business School and an ex-Union Finance Minister must now be regretting those words. India’s homegrown UPI payment system has reached almost every nook and corner of the country so much so that both my children never carry cash. Introduced at the behest of the BJP government in 2016, it has surpassed the transactions made on debit and credit cards. As per data of January 2023 nearly 260 million Indians (including vegetable and other small vendors) use UPI to pay or receive money and in January 2023 it recorded 8 billion transactions worth almost Rupay 200 billion. The beauty of this system is that it can be used to pay any amount ranging from a few to a lakh rupees per transaction. Indians living in ten countries now have access to this system.
There are many indicators to prove that the Indian bus is indeed moving and gathering speed in spite of the headwind caused by the Russian Ukraine war. While the economies of many neighbouring and European countries are crashing our economy has shown remarkable resilience. This is because of the Modi government’s bold policies, including the one on importing and refining Russian crude not just for domestic use but also for export to US and Europe. This has not only prevented a burgeoning oil import bill but even brought in foreign revenue. Our forex reserves now stand at a whopping $595 billion. At the time when Modi became the PM India was the tenth largest economy and is now poised to become the third largest. The Indian economy is not just growing bigger but is also the fastest growing large economy.
In countless ways our lives have become better over the last decade. Gone are the days when we had to struggle to get a cooking gas refill. India today has surplus electric power (though this may not be obvious in Meghalaya) and we are net electricity exporters. There has been a massive infrastructure push across the country with highways being built faster at the speed of 37kms/day thus offering us better connectivity. On a visit to DehraDun recently, after a gap of mere five years, I was surprised at the speed at which road connectivity has improved there. Similar is the case with air and rail travel. Throughout the country Vande Bharat trains are being started. 74 airports have been made operational eight of them in the North East which had just nine. And to top it all there has not been any major scam in any of the Central projects. Morgan Stanley’s latest report has been unabashed in its praise of the Modi-led government’s achievements in the last nine years and has predicted that India will emerge as a key driver for Asia and drive a fifth of world growth in the next decade.
It is not just the rich or the middle class which has got a leg up with the focus on development. India’s poor have also benefited. They have got assistance in building homes (PM Awas Yojana), have been able to build toilets (Swach Bharat Mission) and get electrical connections (Saubhagya Yojana) and even tap water connections (Jal Jeevan Mission).
There has been a concerted effort to end militancy. In Meghalaya itself talks are underway with HNLC. The dialogue with NSCN (IM) is continuing, news of the Bodo militancy has moved from the newspapers to textbooks, the Maoists movement in Chhattisgarh has simmered down, as has militancy in Assam and in Kashmir. Even Manipur which unfortunately is again in turmoil today saw some years of peace.
On the foreign policy front neither China (with an economy less strong than before and with much loss of goodwill) nor Pakistan (now seeking IMF life support) has been allowed to gain any moral or territorial advantage. Our relationships with our neighbours, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and Nepal are on a firmer footing and Western nations, including the USA, the UK, and Germany, in spite of our neutral stand on Ukraine, are seeking closer and more mutually rewarding ties.
Yet, in spite of the facts telling a different story, Narendra Modi is a man who many just love to hate. To quote William Shakespeare perhaps he too is, “more sinned against than sinning.” Though cleared of all charges connected to the 2002 riots by no less than a Supreme Court monitored probe (during the UPA regime) he is referred to as “Maut ka Saudagar”. His personal honesty, with none of his relatives having gained even a small material advantage, is still targeted by chants of, “Chowkidar chor hai” by people who have shamelessly enriched themselves and their relatives without any other vocation apart from politics. The much publicized “Pyaar ki dukan” had its shutters shut during the 1984 anti-Sikh riots, and is like the old and much touted Garibi Hatao just a smart slogan and is a weapon of choice to try and change the narrative. It is being made to appear as if India has become intolerant. Apart from stray incidents of violence in pockets (which include Shillong) which are of course deplorable and need all around condemnation, India is still safe and secular. My wife, a Christian and a Khasi, has travelled alone safely to places even in Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh and Karnataka though she too receives the same WhatsApp forwards to turn her fearful. The Indian “pyaar ki dukaan” is still open and not a franchise of any one political party.
I started this piece with a tale about a journey and will end it with another. In the seventies when one travelled from Guwahati to Shillong, Byrnihat’s cool breeze itself would signal that one was in Meghalaya. Just this month when I travelled the air was hot even in Shillong. The difference has been caused by mining and deforestation. Did Meghalaya gain much from both, aside from traffic congestion and higher ambient temperatures. Apart from the relatively new stress on tourism Meghalaya has frittered away its climatic advantage. We who had the lead in education and health care, now have people going out of the state for both.
In the absence of private investment unemployment runs high. Though reservation is connected to just a few government jobs, it has become an emotive issue. Unless Meghalaya too can find a way to grow its pie, squabbling over the little will continue and perhaps lead to further strife. For this a new brand of leadership is required than making do with old wine under new labels. I don’t for a minute mean to suggest that people should vote for BJP but we do need a different more outward looking attitude. With mounting traffic, power and other woes, only staring only at one’s navel will just not do. Meghalaya will be left far behind.