# NEWS REEL ….. POLITICAL – 730. Kejriwal is now India’s Mr 5 percent – 002. Discontent India’s economic growth rate over the last year and more has dipped sharply. With a fast growing and largely poor population, growth below 5% is punishing. It means that job creation cannot match demand. It means government revenues dry up and even basic public services become difficult to deliver. Indeed the effects of each percentage point decline in India’s growth are felt the most by those who are at the bottom of the socio- economic pyramid, an effect of two decades of highly skewed growth. Over the last decade, revenue spending based initiatives of the UPA such as the MNREGA, kept the aspirations of those at the bottom of the pyramid on hold. However, such schemes have not delivered real jobs, real skills, real productivity or even a robust form of social security that enhances livelihood prospects. A burgeoning fiscal deficit has necessitated spending cuts across various arms of the Government, and has resulted in even slower capital creation within the Indian economy. The net effect is now hopelessness of a new kind, one that stems from being denied all that was within reach. Fuelled by this sense of loss and vulnerability, high levels of social discontent have given rise to Arvind Kejriwal and his motley crew of social engineers, lawyers, journalists, bankers and others, each a product of the times of 8% plus GDP growth rate, who have capitalised on the anger and restlessness of the masses to create a political platform. Mr 5% and his party are products of the misrule rather than any organic political impulse. While the failures of the Congress- led UPA, has allowed Kejriwal to find numbers for his rallies, the lack of political leadership and understanding of the cross- cutting social ferment, has become his party’s Achilles heel. The UPA Government’s falling back upon small, non- executive bodies and individuals that controlled the actions of the Prime Minister’s Office and other functionaries should have provided Kejriwal a good lesson on the effects of a dissipated leadership. The National Advisory Council ( NAC), set up in 2004 to implement the National Common Minimum Program became the rather nebulous command and control centre of the Government of India.
Posted on: Fri, 18 Apr 2014 06:14:59 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015