Obaidullah Nasir
Cororna is not only a deadly virus taking toll of thousands of people all over the world, it is also going to change the present world order. It is almost impossible that the world will be same for a common person as it used to be. It’s economic and social impacts are going to affect the world. Almost every country will face the economic disaster even after corona disaster subsidized. Economy of every country is shattered and it will take not only a long time but will also need extraordinary talent and brain to recover.
Every other country is facing this double threat but unfortunately our country is facing the triple threat, here the third one is the communal virus which is shattering the social fabric of our nation. More unfortunate is the fact that the Modi government at the centre and BJP ruled states are not only criminally silent but are somehow hobnobbing with trouble makers electronic media being at the top in this dangerous game. In an earlier article this was discussed in detail so this time our topic will remain confined to economic issue.
There is no denying the fact that demonetization has already shattered our economy which has yet not recovered. Unplanned implementation of GST added salt to wound. The country was paying heavy economic price because of these two silly decisions of Modi government. Unemployment crossed the fifty years record, GDP nosedived .Dr Manmohan Singh had then predicted a fall of 2% which came to be truth, though his prediction was poohpoohed by PM Narendra Modi himself and his party’s notorious IT cell and its troll brigade numbering in lakhs and spread all over nation . Now even BJP stalwart and noted economist Dr Subramaniam Swamy has said the Modi government is presenting the false data, our GDP is not more than 1.5% , it was pre lockdown assessment it is now 0%.
Lockdown may have been necessary to fight pandemic but it was a panic decision taken in hurry without realizing the ground realities and making arrangements at ground level before taking such a drastic step. This decision halted the entire nation, all economic activities came to standstill not only this, government had to open its coffer to feed millions of stranded people and on medical services. The coffer of government was already vacant so much so that it has already taken about Rs 1,76000 crore from RBI’s contingency fund which was not taken even during two wars with Pakistan. GST collection was so poor that it was even unable to pay share of state governments in the meanwhile pandemic came as a bolt from the blue.
According to a rough estimate the nation has suffered a loss of about Rs.10 lakh crore during this period of lockdown it will continue to increase even though some economic activities are started as hinted by government if it is not done we could’nt even imagine the economic disaster. Even before corona most of “non Bhakt” economist and journalists writing on economic issues have predicted 2020 as a year of economic disaster because of very poor GST collection bad economic management and worst unproductive expenditure of Modi government. For example billions were spent on an event to welcome President Trump at Ahmadabad, publicity expenditures of this government too are mind boggling .Even at this worst economic scenario a huge amount has been sanctioned by union cabinet for NPR and census that shows that the Modi government is more interested in implementing its political agenda than managing the economy. It is said that you can awake a sleeping person but not to a person who is giving the impression of to be asleep. This is true to not only to this government but to its blind supporters also. They are not realizing the gravity of situation neither inflation nor unemployment nor sale of PSUs at throw away prices nor privatization of essential services like railways airlines medical and health services etc. is shaking their conscience. The opium of communal hatred has taken their thought process,humane sentiments,analytical skill,argumentive mind and foresightedness in its grip.
Former finance minister P Chidambram in his recent weekly article has rightly written that there is no plan with this government to revive the economy. Revival of economy needs ideas, plans and its effective implementation unfortunately there seems to be no such things with this government though RBI has yesterday announced certain plans but they will hardly be able to meet the situation. Noted historian and political commentator Ram Chandra Guha had given example of first union cabinet of India in which prime minister Nehru has started talent hunt not only for his cabinet but for bureaucracy also in this search he has not seen political affiliation of his would be colleague even his worst political opponents Dr Ambedkar and Shayama Prasad Mukharjee were included in his cabinet and the officers who have badly treated freedom fighters were given important assignments keeping in mind their talent as that was the time of nation building.The nation is facing the same trouble today it is also a hard truth that this government is short of talent and being the one man show and clamour for “I” few talents with this government are not able to give their best to nation.Will Prime Minister Narednra Modi rise to the occasion and leave his clamour for “I” and start a talent search to bring the nation out of preset mess. He should first of all close his party’s IT cell send its incharge Amit Malviya to quarantine and come down heavily on communal hate mongers including TV channels because without social harmony the nation could’nt be rebuild.