The World Bank’s designation of India as a “lower middle income” economy should drill some sense into the minds of those who get on to their rooftops to hail the nation’s economic progress under the Narendra Modi dispensation lasting around 13 years at a stretch since 2014. Notably, the Bank upgraded Asian nations Vietnam, the Philippines and Sri Lanka in our neighbourhood to “higher income” categories due to their sustained progress, the benefit of which reached the ordinary masses resulting in their uplift and better earnings. After some 80 years of ‘desi’ rule largely by the Congress and in recent years by the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance, India had minimal progress in terms of its people’s earnings or quality of life even for the middle class segments, while the large mass of the poor continue to suffer the worst fate. The poor, rather, are treated to a regular diet of “blah-blahs” from Prime Minister Narendra Modi even as he is increasingly being on the defensive on multiple fronts now. The “economic super power status” that Modi and his brand of politicians seek to bestow on India is no more than a figment of their imagination as the World Bank grading this week amply testified. India still has one of the lowest per capita incomes even as some 20 per cent of the population thrives eminently on corruption, loot of public wealth and exploitation of the ordinary masses. Modi’s rule through three terms was a poor repeat of the past with only some sectors like highways seeing significant improvements and upgrades.
Consider that the World Bank analysis of income levels across countries and states concluded that only five states in India progressed enough to ensure a decent income for their people. Curiously, three of these states are from the South – Karnataka, Telangana and Tamil Nadu – which are not ruled by the BJP. The other two states, Gujarat and Delhi, are currently ruled by the BJP. Gujarat’s progress is also thanks to the generous support the Modi government extended to the state in recent years and the spillover of Mumbai’s commercial activities, including the shifting of textile mills from there. Delhi grew on its own for the past three decades thanks to the economic hyperactivity it witnessed and the flow of corrupt money from the bureaucracy. The principally BJP-ruled states like Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh etc are not in the picture of significant economic development benefiting the people. So too with Bihar, where the BJP and its ally the JDU shared power and Nitish Kumar as chief minister undercut the state’s progress—just as Mamata Banerjee made a further mess of Bengal. Notably, the southern states were liberal in extending governmental assistance to the lower rungs of society, while the BJP-ruled Hindi-belt states were tight-fisted and instead traded in Hindutva religiosity. The grim result is there for all to see and fathom. Add to this the fact that the chief ministers of most BJP-ruled states are good-for-nothingers.
