With India facing crises on several fronts from public health to Chinese aggression, it would be expected that the government takes the opposition into confidence and spells out a coherent and effective strategy. However, though the country now has a total of 42,80,423 confirmed cases of Covid-19 and over 1,100 deaths being reported in a single day, the BJP government appears to be unperturbed. Despite India witnessing a singe day spike of 90,802—which is the highest in the world—the government has not explained what its future course of action is—or if it has one at all!
There is nary a word about the Chinese incursions which continue unabated. Sensing that the BJP government is certainly the weakest in India’s history, the Chinese have chosen to attack us with impunity as it is certain that Prime Minister Modi doesn’t have the courage to name them and address them directly, let alone respond to their aggression appropriately. Even before the country came to terms about Prime Minister Modi telling the opposition that no foreign force had entered Indian territory, despite scores of our soldiers being martyred in skirmishes with the Chinese, the Chinese have attacked again. Some experts believe that as many as 10,000 People’s Liberation Army (PLA) of the Chinese are at the border. The tensions have risen so much that for the first time in 45 years, shots were fired at the Line of Actual Control.
Even on the domestic front, things have plummeted, thanks to the BJP government’s flawed policies—framed without debate and implemented with arrogance. It is now widely known that India has the highest unemployment rate in five decades. The BJP ruled states are the worst performing, with Haryana suffering the highest unemployment with 33.5% according to the latest data released by the Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy, (CMIE). The BJP ruled states are also amongst the worst performers on almost all fronts including in the response to the pandemic.
Yet, the BJP is openly stirring up emotions on some pretext or the other, rather than finding solutions to the massive crises we face today. One likely reason it refuses to make an attempt to solve the problems is because it perhaps is aware that much of the problems in India today have been created by the BJP. For instance, the ruined economy is not only because of the pandemic—which again the BJP refused to act upon despite the Congress party cautioning it. The economic ruin is the result of faulty policies of the BJP from demonetization to the complex GST implementation. Even before the outbreak of the pandemic, the unemployment rate was the highest in decades.
The BJP cannot escape blame for the contracting economy, which has posted an extremely worrying negative 23.9% growth. In the rural areas too, unemployment is on the rise with millions of jobs being lost in both the agricultural and non-agricultural sectors. It is estimated that the economic loss in FY21 will be a massive ₹ 18.44 lakh crore.
Despite such a grave situation that the country faces, the BJP appears to be unmoved. It probably wishes the crises away. However, no disaster can be wished away—timely action and preventive measures must be taken to insulate ourselves from disasters. Likewise, the citizens must also realise that the BJP cannot be wished away—after all it is India’s biggest disaster in recent times. We cannot keep calm and expect the BJP to mend its ways. We must question, hold them responsible and demand answers at every possible opportunity.