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It's highly ironic that the ruling party is now receding to the level of the previous govt that they destroyed in the 2014 elections. The UPA also used to offer

It's highly ironic that the ruling party is now receding to the level of the previous govt that they destroyed in the 2014 elections. The UPA also used to offer free things to poor and used to do minority appeasement two years before the elections. The thing is, this govt came to power in all but 4 Indian states and it has just destroyed the economy. The GDP rate has skid down to 4% just as the previous PM, Dr Manmohan Singh said it would and at that time, everyone mocked him. Guess who is laughing now? The current govt has failed absolutely at every way, the Demonetization exercise was a total and epic disaster and it shocked the economy without fulfilling it's motive of "war on black money" as 99% of the invalid notes were returned to the RBI. But that's not the only problem, the problem is, this govt takes decisions just to win elections. DeMo happened just before UP elections after the "surgical strike" lost it's glitter in the media. Even the most ardent supporters of the current govt are asking the question, if the earlier govt was able to keep the GDP growth rate above 7 in horrible world economic condition, why is the current govt unable to do so even when the crude oil prices are half of what it was earlier?

harigov 9y ago
Minor correction. They are NOT offering free electricity. Just free electric connections. Consumers have to pay the monthly bill on their own. Also, GDP growth under previous govt was accompanied by a significant increase in inflation and govt debt so it is not exactly apples-to-apples comparison.
QAPereo 9y ago
It was toilets for all last time, right? Edit: Oh right, thanks for the reminder. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swachh_Bharat_Abhiyan#History https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swachh_Bharat_Abhiyan#Histor...
- unmole 9y ago
  You mean UPA's Nirmal Bharat campaign which Modiji rebranded as Swach Bharat?
  - virtuabhi 9y ago
    Yes, and all the new poverty alleviation schemes are just rebranding of Garibi Hatao of 1970s, right?
    - unmole 9y ago
      In the government's own words, Nirmal Bharat Abhiyan was Restructured into Swach Bharat Mission.[0] [0]: http://pib.nic.in/newsite/PrintRelease.aspx?relid=109988 http://pib.nic.in/newsite/PrintRelease.aspx?relid=109988
    - ahamedirshad123 9y ago
      Not only this. He is befooling Indians again by launching an old scheme as new. http://www.jantakareporter.com/india/durbhagya-saubhagya-yojana/151497/ http://www.jantakareporter.com/india/durbhagya-saubhagya-yoj... http://www.jantakareporter.com/india/repackaged-previous-upa-schemes/149987/ http://www.jantakareporter.com/india/repackaged-previous-upa...
hesarenu 9y ago
Voting back Congress in is not an option i would choose.
- thewhitetulip 9y ago
  Sure, vote BJP in power in 2019. petrol will be 150Rs per liter and the finance min will say "people who use cars aren't starving" GDP growth will be down to 2% but "we don't want to vote congress in power!" /s
  - ahamedirshad123 9y ago
    "Technical Reasons!"
  - yinyang_in 9y ago
    > Sure, vote BJP in power in 2019. > petrol will be 150Rs per liter and the finance min will say "people who use cars aren't starving" GDP growth will be down to 2% but "we don't want to vote congress in power!" > /s dude your all comments were like politicians. What good congress did other than bringing shame to country. Rahul Gandhi, Sonia gandhi are these your bets for nation ??
    - kamaal 9y ago
      Going by the current government's performance, the previous government was actually quite awesome.
- ahamedirshad123 9y ago
  No one asks You to.
vthallam 9y ago
>The GDP rate has skid down to 4% just as the previous PM, Dr Manmohan Singh said it would and at that time, everyone mocked him. The GDP growth rate has been low from 2012 to 2014[1]. And anything a former prime minister tells about the opposition party, I would take with a pinch of salt. Also, the power ministry has done a great job over the last few years. They distributed LED bulbs across the country which reduced power consumption http://www.ujala.gov.in/ http://www.ujala.gov.in/ They might have made mistakes, but I would choose this govt over the corrupt congress any day. 1:http://statisticstimes.com/economy/gdp-growth-of-india.php http://statisticstimes.com/economy/gdp-growth-of-india.php
- thewhitetulip 9y ago
  So you want the PM to destroy our economy even in favourable economic conditions where there hasn't been a drought. I shudder to think what his brand of Jumla economics will do if they face problems in the next two years. It is clear that they have next to 0 understanding of anything other than giving speeches and 'inaugurating' things which were actually built by congress. I'll settle for RaGa as PM but not a party which takes decisions just for winning elections. and FYI all the LED/Solar schemes were started by Congress, he has just changed names, like 19/28 schemes or something like that. and not to mention the utter hypocrisy and the contempt they use to address the middle class. during UPA time the crude oil prices were 150$ per barrel and petrol was 70Rs per liter, not the crude oil prices are 50$ barrel and still prices of petrol are going up. and at the same time they are wanting that India becomes a manufacturing hub. I wonder which school they went to, or if they even went to a school for clearly they don't realize that manufacturing industry works on petrol, everything runs on petrol and petrol isn't used by "people are aren't starving like the car and bike owners" The MLA aren't starving either, why don't they give up their subsidies? BJP is doing exactly all the things that they opposed when they were in opposition, rise in LPG price, petrol etal. petrol diesel ki pad rahi hai maar, nahi chaiye BJP sarkar
  - virtuabhi 9y ago
    > petrol diesel ki pad rahi hai maar, nahi chaiye BJP sarkar Please keep idiotic comments like this outside HN
awongh 9y ago
Can you elaborate on the "disaster" of demonitization? The only things I've read have been breathless tech press coverage about online transactions and such.
- balladeer 9y ago
  Oh, it was a disaster both technically and economically and it turned out to be a humanitarian disaster in many rural areas. Made life hell and since it was not even half baked (it wasn't put in the oven at all) it affected people worse than anyone would have anticipated, if at all. It was a whimsical decision followed by distorted data floated around as facts, and then rumours, FUD being released, leaked and misrepresented from the Govt or related sources. I have not really done any elaboration here. I would just link you to https://www.google.com/search?q=how+india%27s+demonetization+was+a+disaster https://www.google.com/search?q=how+india%27s+demonetization.... I can answer follow up questions if any (or hopefully others might pitch in whether disagree or agree). I am assuming you are not from the place. I am not into finance and economics so I will try my best. I have one foot in an Indian metro and another in a village near a small town and I travel extensively during that time (in fact I happened to backpack across a fair portion of the country for 2 months during that period). And yeah, a lot of initial tech coverage just limited themselves to the failed online transactions (and similar issues in the cities) and completely ignored what was happening to the rural people and people in the small towns where most of India lives and does business. It was far far far worse.
  - horsecaptin 9y ago
    Here's a more balanced search query: https://duckduckgo.com/?q=Results+from+India%27s+demonetization&t=brave&ia=web https://duckduckgo.com/?q=Results+from+India%27s+demonetizat...
  - sarang23592 9y ago
    I am from a small town in India(Jammu). It was not as bad for the people you are making it out to be. And what you are googling is a confirmation bias. You can search how demonetization was actually impactful and you will see the corresponding results.
_jgdh 9y ago
I've been predicting this govt would do poorly long before they were elected to power. Having said that, you're completely mistaken about this issue. It's the govt's job to provide infrastructure. If all households are electrified by 2019 that makes a massive difference to people's lives - lights and fans at night improve the quality of life, children can study, phones can be charged etc. Further, this actually increases the rate of growth because these people will likely earn and consume more. Honestly, I'm thrilled about this. Just to play Modi's advocate for a second, I think replacing all indirect taxes with one indirect tax will benefit Indian businesses in the long run. Although it will be painful for now, especially for corner cases the govt hasn't thought about (exporters having to pay tax and getting a refund months later) it will get better with time. I predict that the software will improve to the point that filing the tax will become more or less automated. India is taking the hit to growth today to reap the benefit of tax simplification 2+ years from now. As for demonetization, I doubt even Modi's mother could spin that positively. It was a disaster, no doubt. Perhaps the tiny silver lining that was completely unintended is that most urban merchants accept digital payments now.
- thewhitetulip 9y ago
  tdlr: the scheme is good, but through the scheme he is hiding the fact that he has reinstated the economic advisory committee and it is too convinent to do this just as the nation has begun to realize that they were mistaken about his leadership. long: I am not saying that electrification scheme is wrong. I am merely pointing out that there have been too many coincidences. 1. surgical strike happened just a few months before UP elections 2. when surgical strike's glory failed, DeMo happened just a few months before UP election 3. in the first 2 months of DeMo 80% notes were returned, RBI counted 80% notes within 2months but they took 8months to calculate the rest of the notes? 4. RBI report came at the backdrop of the worst floods Mumbai faced since 2006. I am not mistaken about anything, my good sir. I am saying that this govt doesn't do work and it hides it's failures strategically so that people have something else to talk about. Remember the jibe "hard work is more important than harvard"? Our great PM dissolved the economic advisory committee which UPA had in place. now he has reinstated the committee and he announced that during his 2.5Billion $ scheme (which was already present with a deadline of 2018) so that people will talk about electrification but not his utter failure to save the economy. He has failed the country and the GDP is ruined despite good economic conditions and all they are doing is hiding their laundry under the guises of promotions and even more promises. and I had said way back during the general elections (to my clg friends) that it would take 3hrs for bhakts to realize how wrong they were and now almost everyone have opened their eyes!
deleted 9y ago
[deleted]
kumarvvr 9y ago
Providing power to homes is the job of the govt. I don't think it can be considered as 'freebies'. It's the responsibility of the state to use tax money to ensure improvement in the living conditions of all it's citizens.
- JumpCrisscross 9y ago
  > Providing power to homes is the job of the govt This is far from universally accepted. If anything, as countries modernise and their institutions develop, the trend appears to lean towards the state not doing this.
  - opencl 9y ago
    What countries have developed electric infrastructure (or really, infrastructure in general) without the state being heavily involved? Not trying to be dismissive, I haven't seen anything about this and my quick attempts at googling don't seem to turn up anything.
  - thewhitetulip 9y ago
    You know, Florida has an electricity generation company called FPL and it is private and because of the lobbying, the people of Florida coudn't use their solar panels when they faced the hurricane a few weeks back. I am happy that our govt controls electricity, roads, railway because if they don't then such things will be run for profit and there will be lobbying which is never good for a democracy.
Reason077 9y ago
"Demonetization exercise was a total and epic disaster and it shocked the economy without fulfilling it's motive of "war on black money" as 99% of the invalid notes were returned to the RBI." That was exactly the point. The fact that 99% of notes were returned indicates that demonetization was a success. The whole idea was to stop large cash transactions from occurring in secrecy where they cannot be taxed. Any economic problems resulting from demonetization are short-term. In the long run, moving to electronic transactions will be of great benefit to India.
- 31reasons 9y ago
  I think they should just make any cash transactions more than 1000 rupees illegal.
- thewhitetulip 9y ago
  Ghanta. The goal was to "eradicate black money" but they utterly failed in eradicating black money as all black money was converted into white in a BIG blow to the exercise & all black money has entered the banking system. 1% is the "destroyed black money" If this was the case then BJP is a big damn liar as they kept claiming that congress did scams well, if there is only 1% black money Congress is full of saints.
  - Reason077 9y ago
    Money that is brought into the banking system isn't "black" any longer. It can be seen, counted, taxed.
  - kapilkaisare 9y ago
    For the uninitiated, 'ghanta' translates idiomatically to 'bullshit'. Been a while since I last heard that word. :)
    - vaseem 9y ago
      actually it translates to 'balls'
yinyang_in 9y ago
I wasn't a BJP lover, but the criticism is just absurd. I think they're getting caught by the beast they unleashed (social networking). GST everybody wanted it, but because everyone wants credit for it, no-one was letting it pass. This whole tax system is changing, few problems are going to come. What's wrong with using it as political agenda, rulers(so-called democracy) do this everytime. Atleast so far better than congress nation wide corruption. He has marketed India well around the world, people talk about India. He is talking tough stands, don't know who you think is better one to rule. Congress, third-front( maya, lalu, nitish). I think he the best option we have. If you think we've some better option, do enlighten me. Will be happy to hear your opinion.

harigov 9y ago

Minor correction. They are NOT offering free electricity. Just free electric connections. Consumers have to pay the monthly bill on their own. Also, GDP growth under previous govt was accompanied by a significant increase in inflation and govt debt so it is not exactly apples-to-apples comparison.

QAPereo 9y ago

It was toilets for all last time, right? Edit: Oh right, thanks for the reminder. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swachh_Bharat_Abhiyan#History https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swachh_Bharat_Abhiyan#Histor...

unmole 9y ago
You mean UPA's Nirmal Bharat campaign which Modiji rebranded as Swach Bharat?
- virtuabhi 9y ago
  Yes, and all the new poverty alleviation schemes are just rebranding of Garibi Hatao of 1970s, right?
  - unmole 9y ago
    In the government's own words, Nirmal Bharat Abhiyan was Restructured into Swach Bharat Mission.[0] [0]: http://pib.nic.in/newsite/PrintRelease.aspx?relid=109988 http://pib.nic.in/newsite/PrintRelease.aspx?relid=109988
  - ahamedirshad123 9y ago
    Not only this. He is befooling Indians again by launching an old scheme as new. http://www.jantakareporter.com/india/durbhagya-saubhagya-yojana/151497/ http://www.jantakareporter.com/india/durbhagya-saubhagya-yoj... http://www.jantakareporter.com/india/repackaged-previous-upa-schemes/149987/ http://www.jantakareporter.com/india/repackaged-previous-upa...

hesarenu 9y ago

Voting back Congress in is not an option i would choose.

thewhitetulip 9y ago
Sure, vote BJP in power in 2019. petrol will be 150Rs per liter and the finance min will say "people who use cars aren't starving" GDP growth will be down to 2% but "we don't want to vote congress in power!" /s
- ahamedirshad123 9y ago
  "Technical Reasons!"
- yinyang_in 9y ago
  > Sure, vote BJP in power in 2019. > petrol will be 150Rs per liter and the finance min will say "people who use cars aren't starving" GDP growth will be down to 2% but "we don't want to vote congress in power!" > /s dude your all comments were like politicians. What good congress did other than bringing shame to country. Rahul Gandhi, Sonia gandhi are these your bets for nation ??
  - kamaal 9y ago
    Going by the current government's performance, the previous government was actually quite awesome.
ahamedirshad123 9y ago
No one asks You to.

vthallam 9y ago

>The GDP rate has skid down to 4% just as the previous PM, Dr Manmohan Singh said it would and at that time, everyone mocked him. The GDP growth rate has been low from 2012 to 2014[1]. And anything a former prime minister tells about the opposition party, I would take with a pinch of salt. Also, the power ministry has done a great job over the last few years. They distributed LED bulbs across the country which reduced power consumption http://www.ujala.gov.in/ http://www.ujala.gov.in/ They might have made mistakes, but I would choose this govt over the corrupt congress any day. 1:http://statisticstimes.com/economy/gdp-growth-of-india.php http://statisticstimes.com/economy/gdp-growth-of-india.php

thewhitetulip 9y ago
So you want the PM to destroy our economy even in favourable economic conditions where there hasn't been a drought. I shudder to think what his brand of Jumla economics will do if they face problems in the next two years. It is clear that they have next to 0 understanding of anything other than giving speeches and 'inaugurating' things which were actually built by congress. I'll settle for RaGa as PM but not a party which takes decisions just for winning elections. and FYI all the LED/Solar schemes were started by Congress, he has just changed names, like 19/28 schemes or something like that. and not to mention the utter hypocrisy and the contempt they use to address the middle class. during UPA time the crude oil prices were 150$ per barrel and petrol was 70Rs per liter, not the crude oil prices are 50$ barrel and still prices of petrol are going up. and at the same time they are wanting that India becomes a manufacturing hub. I wonder which school they went to, or if they even went to a school for clearly they don't realize that manufacturing industry works on petrol, everything runs on petrol and petrol isn't used by "people are aren't starving like the car and bike owners" The MLA aren't starving either, why don't they give up their subsidies? BJP is doing exactly all the things that they opposed when they were in opposition, rise in LPG price, petrol etal. petrol diesel ki pad rahi hai maar, nahi chaiye BJP sarkar
- virtuabhi 9y ago
  > petrol diesel ki pad rahi hai maar, nahi chaiye BJP sarkar Please keep idiotic comments like this outside HN

awongh 9y ago

Can you elaborate on the "disaster" of demonitization? The only things I've read have been breathless tech press coverage about online transactions and such.

balladeer 9y ago
Oh, it was a disaster both technically and economically and it turned out to be a humanitarian disaster in many rural areas. Made life hell and since it was not even half baked (it wasn't put in the oven at all) it affected people worse than anyone would have anticipated, if at all. It was a whimsical decision followed by distorted data floated around as facts, and then rumours, FUD being released, leaked and misrepresented from the Govt or related sources. I have not really done any elaboration here. I would just link you to https://www.google.com/search?q=how+india%27s+demonetization+was+a+disaster https://www.google.com/search?q=how+india%27s+demonetization.... I can answer follow up questions if any (or hopefully others might pitch in whether disagree or agree). I am assuming you are not from the place. I am not into finance and economics so I will try my best. I have one foot in an Indian metro and another in a village near a small town and I travel extensively during that time (in fact I happened to backpack across a fair portion of the country for 2 months during that period). And yeah, a lot of initial tech coverage just limited themselves to the failed online transactions (and similar issues in the cities) and completely ignored what was happening to the rural people and people in the small towns where most of India lives and does business. It was far far far worse.
- horsecaptin 9y ago
  Here's a more balanced search query: https://duckduckgo.com/?q=Results+from+India%27s+demonetization&t=brave&ia=web https://duckduckgo.com/?q=Results+from+India%27s+demonetizat...
- sarang23592 9y ago
  I am from a small town in India(Jammu). It was not as bad for the people you are making it out to be. And what you are googling is a confirmation bias. You can search how demonetization was actually impactful and you will see the corresponding results.

_jgdh 9y ago

I've been predicting this govt would do poorly long before they were elected to power. Having said that, you're completely mistaken about this issue. It's the govt's job to provide infrastructure. If all households are electrified by 2019 that makes a massive difference to people's lives - lights and fans at night improve the quality of life, children can study, phones can be charged etc. Further, this actually increases the rate of growth because these people will likely earn and consume more. Honestly, I'm thrilled about this. Just to play Modi's advocate for a second, I think replacing all indirect taxes with one indirect tax will benefit Indian businesses in the long run. Although it will be painful for now, especially for corner cases the govt hasn't thought about (exporters having to pay tax and getting a refund months later) it will get better with time. I predict that the software will improve to the point that filing the tax will become more or less automated. India is taking the hit to growth today to reap the benefit of tax simplification 2+ years from now. As for demonetization, I doubt even Modi's mother could spin that positively. It was a disaster, no doubt. Perhaps the tiny silver lining that was completely unintended is that most urban merchants accept digital payments now.

thewhitetulip 9y ago
tdlr: the scheme is good, but through the scheme he is hiding the fact that he has reinstated the economic advisory committee and it is too convinent to do this just as the nation has begun to realize that they were mistaken about his leadership. long: I am not saying that electrification scheme is wrong. I am merely pointing out that there have been too many coincidences. 1. surgical strike happened just a few months before UP elections 2. when surgical strike's glory failed, DeMo happened just a few months before UP election 3. in the first 2 months of DeMo 80% notes were returned, RBI counted 80% notes within 2months but they took 8months to calculate the rest of the notes? 4. RBI report came at the backdrop of the worst floods Mumbai faced since 2006. I am not mistaken about anything, my good sir. I am saying that this govt doesn't do work and it hides it's failures strategically so that people have something else to talk about. Remember the jibe "hard work is more important than harvard"? Our great PM dissolved the economic advisory committee which UPA had in place. now he has reinstated the committee and he announced that during his 2.5Billion $ scheme (which was already present with a deadline of 2018) so that people will talk about electrification but not his utter failure to save the economy. He has failed the country and the GDP is ruined despite good economic conditions and all they are doing is hiding their laundry under the guises of promotions and even more promises. and I had said way back during the general elections (to my clg friends) that it would take 3hrs for bhakts to realize how wrong they were and now almost everyone have opened their eyes!

deleted 9y ago

[deleted]

kumarvvr 9y ago

Providing power to homes is the job of the govt. I don't think it can be considered as 'freebies'. It's the responsibility of the state to use tax money to ensure improvement in the living conditions of all it's citizens.

JumpCrisscross 9y ago
> Providing power to homes is the job of the govt This is far from universally accepted. If anything, as countries modernise and their institutions develop, the trend appears to lean towards the state not doing this.
- opencl 9y ago
  What countries have developed electric infrastructure (or really, infrastructure in general) without the state being heavily involved? Not trying to be dismissive, I haven't seen anything about this and my quick attempts at googling don't seem to turn up anything.
- thewhitetulip 9y ago
  You know, Florida has an electricity generation company called FPL and it is private and because of the lobbying, the people of Florida coudn't use their solar panels when they faced the hurricane a few weeks back. I am happy that our govt controls electricity, roads, railway because if they don't then such things will be run for profit and there will be lobbying which is never good for a democracy.

Reason077 9y ago

"Demonetization exercise was a total and epic disaster and it shocked the economy without fulfilling it's motive of "war on black money" as 99% of the invalid notes were returned to the RBI." That was exactly the point. The fact that 99% of notes were returned indicates that demonetization was a success. The whole idea was to stop large cash transactions from occurring in secrecy where they cannot be taxed. Any economic problems resulting from demonetization are short-term. In the long run, moving to electronic transactions will be of great benefit to India.

31reasons 9y ago
I think they should just make any cash transactions more than 1000 rupees illegal.
thewhitetulip 9y ago
Ghanta. The goal was to "eradicate black money" but they utterly failed in eradicating black money as all black money was converted into white in a BIG blow to the exercise & all black money has entered the banking system. 1% is the "destroyed black money" If this was the case then BJP is a big damn liar as they kept claiming that congress did scams well, if there is only 1% black money Congress is full of saints.
- Reason077 9y ago
  Money that is brought into the banking system isn't "black" any longer. It can be seen, counted, taxed.
- kapilkaisare 9y ago
  For the uninitiated, 'ghanta' translates idiomatically to 'bullshit'. Been a while since I last heard that word. :)
  - vaseem 9y ago
    actually it translates to 'balls'

yinyang_in 9y ago

I wasn't a BJP lover, but the criticism is just absurd. I think they're getting caught by the beast they unleashed (social networking). GST everybody wanted it, but because everyone wants credit for it, no-one was letting it pass. This whole tax system is changing, few problems are going to come. What's wrong with using it as political agenda, rulers(so-called democracy) do this everytime. Atleast so far better than congress nation wide corruption. He has marketed India well around the world, people talk about India. He is talking tough stands, don't know who you think is better one to rule. Congress, third-front( maya, lalu, nitish). I think he the best option we have. If you think we've some better option, do enlighten me. Will be happy to hear your opinion.