State of the Nation: PM’s ‘Health of the Nation’...

State of the Nation: PM’s ‘Health of the Nation’...

5. The fifth point is ‘Health for All’. Here we need not look beyond what is going on around us at this very time.

India’s government is unique in the world in several ways. First because it has the highest cost of vaccination in the world. Second because there were three and now different vaccination procurements: the Centre and private companies. And third because India has defaulted on its commitments to vaccinate the world. We need not go into details of this today. So far as health for all is concerned only a few days ago oxygen was being sold for Rs 60,000 a cylinder lasting a few hours in Delhi and there was (and there is) no national helpline for finding oxygen and essential drugs.

6. The sixth point is called ‘Infra for Growth’. India’s GDP growth has been falling since January 2018 according to the government’s figures. It fell from 8% to 7% to 6% to 5% to 4% to 3% before the pandemic. Last year the economy contracted in its biggest fall in history.

7. The seventh point is called ‘Mobility for the Middle Class’ and says ‘no other government has done more for them as the Modi government’. Last month a report by the Azim Premji University showed that during the pandemic, 27 crore Indians were pushed into poverty. Meaning that they were not poor according to the government poverty line before but have become now.

8.Vikas Yatra point number 8 is called ‘Nari Shakti for new India’. The participation of women in India’s labour force is around 10% today, the lowest in history. In a 2018 study by Thomson Reuters, India was found to be the most dangerous place for women in the world. In the 2020 Georgetown Institute’s Women, Peace and Security Index, India ranked 133, having fallen two places since 2017.

9. Point 9 says ‘Prosperous farmers for prosperous India’. It claims "farmer welfare is a top priority for the Modi government". The tens of thousands of farmers currently on protest outside Delhi who have been vilified as terrorists, Khalistanis and anti-nationals will disagree.

10. Number 10 is ‘Putting India first’. The claim here is on national security. We have not been told yet what the status of our patrolling in Depsang is by the government but if experts are to be believed, we have given away space to China.

Number 11, 12, 13 and 14 are called ‘Renewed focus on Northeast’ and ‘Social empowerment’ and ‘Taking development to the poorest’ and ‘Transformative economic growth’. These are generic terms but let us concede that work has been done on them.

The final point is ‘India fights Corona’. It would be interesting to see what the world thinks of that statement. Even with its underreporting of numbers on infections and deaths India has the second highest number of cases in the world and the third highest number of deaths. Estimates say that in reality it is the leader in both and that the number of deaths just in the second wave were over 10 lakh across India.

This then is the state of the Government of India and of our country as we enter the eighth year of the Modi government.

( The writer is an author and columnist. Views are personal)

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