Sabka saath, sabka vikas.’ Has that happened? I see no change at the ground level.
In my opinion, the condition of the aam aadmi has remained the same, if not worsened, over the last five years. I feel disappointed by the current NDA government at the Centre because they had sold many a dream to the voters and had heightened their expectations. Nothing came out of these promises. Modi did generate a lot of hope among masses. And those dreams and hopes lie deserted today.
Corruption has become a hallmark of our everyday lives; there no jobs in the market and the youth are feeling increasingly dejected by the day. When I go to press the button on voting machine, these things will weigh on my mind and others. They will pay the price for these unkept promises dearly. Another major fault of this government was that it doesn’t look before it takes a leap. Demonetisation is a prime example.
It was announced and executed in such haste and without proper preparation, that till date even government managers have not been able to make any sense of it. And I feel it is the poor people who suffered the most due to demonetisation, though the middle class suffered a lot as well. However, for people who live a hand-to-mouth existence, even a day without work (which was spent in standing in line for their hard-earned money) means going without food.
And we all know the whole thing took more than a month to settle. Which means poor people lost many working days. And now the RBI (Reserve Bank of India) says nearly 99% of the scrapped notes have come back into the system. So where’s the black money now? Vanished into thin air? It was an empty exercise after all. Also, the government had said that it would crush terrorism, Naxalism, fake currency etc., but all that turned out to be overestimated as well.
WE are in a strange position. The farmers are not getting proper prices for their yield and common man says prices of commodities are rising. Where are the regulators? Also, as a retired person, I am not happy with the rise in petrol prices. The government is in a position to reduce the prices and should seriously think about it.
In 2019 we need a government with a vision, one that is humble enough to learn from the past and courageous enough to take decisions about the future with confidence. We need a government that understands agriculture and empathises with farmers, for agriculture is the backbone of our economy after all. Rahul Gandhi needs to be a bit more polished before he can be taken seriously by the people. (The narrator did not wish to share his photograph. LokMarg has used a representational image.)
