PM’s Independence Day Speech: A smokescreen of the ground reality

Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Independence Day speech is neither evidence-based nor fact-based, but just a reflection of his rhetorical dexterity and adroitness. His pompous claims of performance cannot be corroborated with facts and figures but rather a smokescreen of ground reality, especially the suffering of the masses .

He decried corruption/ nepotism, dynastic politics, and appeasement as three sins and called for getting rid of them. But the question is: if he is against dynastic politics, why did he not stop the same practice in his own party? Further, if any corrupt leader joins his party, they will suddenly become clean and will be exempted from all punishment. What is reprehensible is that provision of electoral bonds is helping the ruling party to get funds in an opaque manner. Even a major portion of political donations go to the BJP party.

Corruption and nepotism have grown more during Modi 's regime as revealed by the Corruption Perception Index. India is ranked 85th among 180 countries in Transparency International's Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI), 2021. In the 2020 Index, India’s position has declined by six slots from 80 to 86.

What is rarely discussed is that Banks have written off bad loans worth ₹ 14.56 lakh crore in the last nine financial years starting 2014-15. Out of that written-off amount, only 13 to 15% are recovered. Then who are the beneficiaries? Is it not a humongous scam by another name? Can anyone get off scot-free without the support of the ruling class?

PM Modi compared various expenditures with the previous UPA government in nominal terms. But nothing is compared in absolute or nominal terms. Inflation is to be taken into account. Every expenditure should be compared as a percentage of GDP. Our budget size is declining as a percentage of GDP even less than half of many developed countries. But PM Modi did not tell how the debt has grown and now seems to be unsustainable.

Central government's debt was ₹ 58.6 lakh crore (52.2% of GDP) as of March 31, 2014, which went up by 174 percent to ₹ 155.6 lakh crore (57.1 %of GDP ) as of March 31, 2023. More importantly, the government's external debt, which was ₹ 374,484 crores in 2013-14 has doubled to ₹ 7,48,895 crores in 2022-23.

The PM said that our inflation is low compared to other countries. But retail inflation soared to a 15-month high of 7.44% in July from June. Food inflation that cripples the poor has hit double digits. India's inflation outpaced major economies and rose faster than many large economies as well as key emerging marketing peers.

The Prime Minister trumpeted India’s growth story and said that in 2014, when his government first came to power, India was ranked the 10th best economy in the world and today it is 5th and will become the third-largest economy in the next five years. This is a mathematical certainty. India's emergence as the world's third-largest economy in this decade has been forecast for quite some time now - whichever party forms the next government. However, India has been the third-largest economy in terms of purchasing power parity since 2011 too.

While trumpeting supercilious growth, the Prime Minister should not forget that India ranks very low in per capita income. The ignominious fact is that India ranks 139th in the world in terms of per capita income, which means it is below 138 countries, even Bangladesh. Similarly, in terms of per capita income (purchasing power parity), India ranks 127th in the world, which means it is below 126 countries.

Prime Minister Modi said that the world is watching us because of our commitment. But the reality is different as India is home to the largest number of hungry, poor, and homeless people in the world. Around 97 crore people are deprived of healthy food. Crores of people do not know when and where their next meal will come.India’s reputation is affected in foreign countries as it ranks abysmally in various international indexes.

Prime Minister Modi said that the situation in Manipur is improving. Each time, for any crisis, he says things will be solved. But the responsibility of his government is to prevent such happening. Nobody has seen tomorrow. In the long run, everybody is dead. Those who are killed will not get back their lives nor who are raped will get back their dignity.

Prime Minister Modi highlighted the nation’s unique distinction as the world’s largest democracy and cited that we are lucky to have demography, democracy, and diversity. In the past, he has described Indian democracy as a mother of democracy. But now all pillars of democracy are weakened. The pro-ruling class people are entrusted with the responsibility of various important institutions.

Democracy is sliding in India as India is dubbed an electoral autocracy. India ranks 108th in the Electoral Democracy Index of the V-dem Democracy Report 2023. India has also been named in the top 10 autocratising countries in the last 10 years. India is also ranked 46th on the 2021 Global Democracy Index of the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU) and has been classified as a flawed democracy. India also ranks awfully at 119 out of 165 countries on the Human Freedom Index.

Freedom of the press is an important ingredient of the success and survival of democracy. But the credibility of Indian media is now questionable. India is ranked abysmally 161 out of 180 countries in the World Press Freedom Index. India was ranked 140 in 2014. It means India’s position has declined by 21 slots since 2014.

The theme for Independence Day 2023 is "Nation First, Always First". But now rich, powerful corporate behemoths are treated first. The system is rigged to favour them at the cost of the poor. The corporate tax has been cut, wealth taxes are abolished, real interest rates are kept low, and stock markets are manipulated to help corporate behemoths to amass wealth. Further, while the rich, and powerful keep their black money in tax havens to hide their ill-gotten wealth and evade taxes, savers are made to pay taxes on hard-earned savings and even on insurance premiums.

The rich getting richer reflects how the government is taking the side of the rich. The 2022 World Inequality Report showed that the gap between the rich and the poor in India is at a historical high, with the top 10 % holding 57% of national income – more than the average of 50 % under British colonial rule (1858-1947).

The Prime Minister urged Indians to re-elect him in the next 2024 Lok Sabha election. But he did not tell what promises he had made before the 2014 elections and how much the same had been realized. Not a single promise of the economic front has been fulfilled except resorting to publicity blitzkrieg.

The author is an eminent columnist/economist and social thinker. He can be reached through email at skmohapatra67@gmail.com