Samanya Praja and His "Changed" Dilli...

Once upon a time, Samanya Praja, a man in his middle ages, lived in a middle class suburb of India's capital Delhi. He was very frustrated with Indian politics. He wanted change. He was feeling angry at 1000s of rapes happening in his city. He felt like kicking the politicians indulging in 2G, CWG, Coalgate and a thousand other scams. He used to tell his family that he has lost hope in the Idea of India. He felt very pessimistic at the prospects of jobs, progress and security of his son and daughter. He was concerned on how his wife and himself would get any quality healthcare in Delhi, after seeing corruption from cradle to grave in the society.

Then came a messiah.. A self declared corruption fighter named Arvind Kejriwal. A man who worked as a government babu, but miraculously managed to avoid transfer in his entire career.. a Guinness record in corrupt India! He always sat next to famous people of the society like Anna Hazare and Baba Ramdev. He dressed like Samanya Praja, so there was a lot of connection. The simple shirt, the basic pant, a chappal, no big car, very pleasing mannerism.. Praja got very attracted. He heard Arvind a few times. He got very inspired at "Brashtachar khatam karo" slogans. He convinced himself and his family that this man can change Delhi. This man is the answer to all ills they had seen so far. They paid close attention to the charming words of Kejriwal. The most impressive speeches were always on how the highly corrupt Sheila Dikshit would be sent to jail if Kejriwal comes to power. They cheered when they heard that rapes would be stopped in Delhi. They loved it when they heard that Delhi would be a clean and green city. Praja jumped when they heard that they would be getting cheaper electricity 24*7, no more slums in Delhi, cheaper and reliable water, clean roads, children getting free WiFi, lots of new schools, upcoming great hospitals, perfect Lokayukta and Lokpal systems, perfect harmony in the society, absolutely no cheating by MLAs, security for senior citizen... oh the list was so long.. it felt like a Utopian dream world was just knocking on the door of Delhi..

Then a tragic accident. One bad evening, Samanya Praja got hit by a drunken driver. He descended into coma.

After great effort by doctors and his family, he woke up just before Diwali of 2015. The family cheered and prayed to Durga mata profusely. Thank you Devi ma.. Our Samanya Praja is back in walking state after sleeping unconscious for a long time.

After 4 hours of cheers, juice and light food, Praja asks.. Where am I? What date is it? How are things?
His family slowly answers them.

By evening, he got curious on how things are. He was thrilled to learn that his ideal politician Kejriwal had become the CM by winning the election by a huge margin. He was like.. Oohhooo!! His wife said.. Jee.. relax. You still need some rest for a week. Don't get excited. Praja was still cheering. You don't know dear. I waited for this moment for years. I hope Delhi is now a great place!

His wife and kids didn't show any smile. He got worried. He asked his son. Did you get the WiFi? He nodded left to right. He asked his daughter. Are girls safer now in Delhi? Rapes have stopped? She got tears.. Pappa.. it has gotten worse. Even 2 and 5 year old girls are not left now. Oh! Praja is shocked. He asked his wife. Is Sheila Dikshit, the horribly corrupt woman who ruined Delhi, in Tihar jail? She just looked down. He got furious now. No WiFi.. no safety for women.. no jail for Sheila? What the heck?

After 10 minutes of silence, he continued. Is there a Lokpal? Son nodded no. How about a Lokayukta sending all corrupt to jails? No daddy.. We only got a name-sake Lokayukta a week ago. We had none till now. So far no jail for any corrupt. Praja is furious.. then at least tell me that Arvind's government is working well. No corruption in the MLA circle. Right? His daughter got angry. Pappa.. this Arvind cheated us badly. His MLA gang is full of crooks. Law Minister went to jail for Degree fraud. More are about to go to jail for degree frauds. Former law minister is about to go jail for beating up his wife. His own MLA was caught in corruption needing a firing on live TV - just like for everything involving Kejriwal, his MLA firing also needed TV camera and action! His MLAs are now VIPs with big cars. Kejriwal himself got a 5 bed room bungalow after all preaching earlier of no bungalows. They spent 100s of crores on just giving radio and billboard ads. They kicked out Prashant Bhushan, Yogendra Yadav and other uncles with whom you were on roads doing dharna earlier. This guy has become a power hungry dictator.. Worse, he has no portfolio under him, so that he can keep doing 24*7 drama across India, while our roads are full of stinking garbage. And there are still lots of slums and they are getting bigger. No new school or hospital in sight. I can't see any new job creation for Engineers, Commerce Graduates or Scientists. Traffic is getting worse. Yamuna is still full of froth. Road rage is very high. In fact, Kejriwal's party law makers like Alka Lamba were seen vandalizing a shop. Nothing pappa.. I repeat nothing.. got better after years of listening to Anna and Kejriwal speeches.

Praja is now really feeling dizzy. After months of coma, what he heard made him even more weaker. What are you telling children? At least tell me that he has not allied with any corrupt politician. His wife got furious now. This guy is an ally of Lalu Yadav's ghatbandhan.. the same chara chor who went to jail!! Worse.. even the 2G scam tainted Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi are in the same team for which Kejriwal is campaigning in Bihar! What more you want?

Praja became unconscious!

When he woke up after 10 minutes. His daughter gave lemon juice and told. Pappa.. we got fooled. That Sheila was corrupt, but she was 100 times better than this drama guy. Kejriwal and his irresponsible gang even watched a poor farmer from Rajasthan commit suicide 30 feet in front during a speech, but still didn't stop their speech blaming central government and police. This CM has no respect for the police who protect us. He even called them criminals and "thulla". All he does is keep fighting with police, Lt Governor, Home Minister and Prime Minister. Sometimes he gets mad at press too, in spite of his entire career being built by press and TV. I have never been cheated mentally like this before. He raised our hopes on every corner. Got our votes. We worked with his topi gang on streets for months. Now, all we get is ads using our own money, to blame the central government. We could have done that free, sitting on our sofa.. We Indians are experts in blaming politicians in our homes, for generations. Why did we need a Chief Minister who has no portfolio, spending crores of our money, to blame government that we are experts in blaming ourselves?

Then power went off. It took 5 minutes for the critical machines to get generator power. Mosquitos were biting his tender skin. His wife was worried about Dengue and screaming to put a coil to prevent mosquito bites. By then the exhausted Praja had gone back to coma.

Bharat Nirman Ads - Bogus Claims Of Jobs And Growth

It has been almost 9 months since India's tax payers money is misused to a wide extent to bombard Indians that a massive "Bharat Nirman" (India building) is happening. Every print or visual advertisement will surely have Sonia Gandhi (no one is sure what is her active and constitutionally sanctioned role in the government) and PM Manmohan Singh. More or less all these ads are hypes and I have spent time debunking many of them earlier.

Over 100 crores are clearly burnt in various Bharat Nirman ads. The one ad that always catches my attention is the Jobs related ad. The "revolution" in job creation as claimed via MNREGA has burnt crores of valuable tax money, in just the print and digital ads.

Bharat Nirman ad on jobs - source: vifindia

Keep in mind, there are three kinds of major jobs in India.

1. The regular jobs - salaried either in government or in private sector.
2. The casual jobs - like the one being advertised. These are seasonal either in private or public sectors.
3. The self employment jobs - Majority of Indians make their living in self employment or casual jobs.

"Earlier we used to search for work.. now jobs come to us" claims the young man, in that UPA ad.

Are you really sure Mrs. Sonia Gandhi?
Have you really created the crores of jobs that you claim using our tax money?

Let's explore.

Devinder Sharma, an expert in food and agriculture policy, has written a very important, fact filled article in DNA on 17th February 2014. The title of the article is Migration back to villages. If we don't understand the plight of the 60,00,00,000 farmers in India who are actively into agriculture, we just can't comment on the economy in any sensible manner. This article paints the most current picture of Indian agriculture. It not only exposes the jobs creation myth of UPA, and also exposes the hollowness of their claims on food security and land acquisition bills.

Some key excerpts from that tell us an entirely different picture.


Farmers are leaving the cities and moving back to the villages. Why? The economy has tanked in urban areas.

In the coming months, about 1.5 crore farmers who quit agriculture in the past seven years, are likely to trudge back into the villages. In normal circumstances such a massive reverse migration — from the cities back to the villages — would have been a sign of inclusive growth. But economists are taking this U-turn as a sign of economic slowdown.

When UPA talked of employment generation, it did not tell that 50,00,000 farmers of India left their farming jobs each year, to take up menial and highly unstable jobs. Who calculated these lost jobs?

In the seven-year period between 2005 and 2012, according to CRISIL an estimated 3.7 crore farmers quit agriculture. Economists view this trend as a sign of economic growth. In other words, while 50 lakh farmers are forced out of agriculture every year, growing farm unemployment is being considered as a sign of economic growth. How can pushing farmers out of agriculture sector and then finding an alternative employment for these millions displaced from agriculture constitute economic growth?

India saw mostly temporary and casual jobs that were counted as "Bharat Nirman". Here's the reality.

we are told that an estimated 70 lakh jobs are created in the non-farm sector. Considering that most of the non-farm jobs are in construction, what is not being told is that these menial jobs are temporary and do not carry any social security.

Except agriculture, everything else is collapsing during "Bharat Nirman" phase of Manmohan Singh.

At a time when there is an all round doom and gloom — industrial output failing to keep pace, manufacturing sector declining, joblessness growing, fiscal deficit mounting and the current account deficit growing to a worrisome level — it is only agriculture that provides a glimmer of hope.  

Here is a very worrying part. India emerged as the biggest exporter of rice during the years immediately after NDA government. But the so-called Bharat Nirman is almost making India an importer of rice in 3 years.

India emerged as the world’s biggest exporter of rice, and farm exports zoomed exponentially. And yet the fact remains that agriculture is the most neglected sector. Even the Prime Minister acknowledges that India is faced with terrible agrarian distress.

Already there are indications that India will turn into an importer of rice in the next three years.

UPA government is killing even the only sector that has some decent future, the agriculture.

In fact, at a time when government employees have been promised a further pay rise from the 7th Pay Commission, farmers remain at the bottom of the pile, neglected and forgotten. On an average, 2,500 farmers quit farming every day to join the army of landless workers.

UPA is not reducing the poverty, but infact making it worse. All the "garibi hatao" slogans are just eye washes, by reducing the scale with which poverty is measured.

With joblessness growing and the policy thrust on reducing subsidies for the poor and needy, the number of poor in absolute terms has been increasing. By reducing the poverty line to Rs28 in urban areas, and Rs24 in rural areas, the government can play around with figures, but the fact remains that poverty is on an upswing.

 UPA government burns public money to claim that the National Food Security Bill (FSB) is a great thing.

Food Security Bill ad - source: castingnb

But the reality exposed by Devinder Sharma is that UPA's failed policies have deliberately displaced farmers and now this FSB is just to reduce the chances of food riots when people have neither jobs nor food.

The enactment of the Food Security Act ensuring a monthly entitlement of 5 kg of rice/wheat/millet  to 67 per cent of the population or 830 million people is not only aimed at offsetting the additional burden of the unprecedented price rise, but more importantly, it is aimed at minimising the possibility of food riots that can erupt when a large section of the population is being deliberately displaced from an assured livelihood.

UPA 2 has killed India's economy. Proof.

From a high of 9.3 per cent two years ago, the GDP has fallen to less than 5 per cent in 2013.  

As opposed to UPA's Bharat Nirman claim, jobs are disappearing in India.  All the growth we saw on paper was jobless growth in totality. This is not going to help India that has 18% of the world's population.

At a time when GDP was galloping at 8-9 per cent between 2005 and 2010, the report shows 140 lakh people were displaced from agriculture. Generally it is believed that those who quit agriculture would be joining the workforce in the manufacturing sector. But the report showed that even in the manufacturing sector 57 lakh jobs were lost. A clear pointer to the jobless growth the country is witnessing.

 And lastly,  Rahul Gandhi keeps harping about the Land Acquisition bill as a great achievement of UPA government, even though he has no official role in the government (meaning, will take credit for all positive thigns, but escapes all blame for negative things like scams).

But Devinder exposes the hollowness of Rahul Gandhi's claim:

With the new land acquisition law coming into force, more people would be driven out of their meagre land holdings and forced to migrate to the cities looking for menial jobs.

Wake up India.. It's not Bharat Nirman. It's Bharat Nirnaam (ruin) that UPA government is doing.
India needs a leader with a growth track record. Not tape records. Think and vote in 2014.

Read This Before You Vote in 2014

My request to young Indians;

Please do not support Anarchy. It kills nation from within. It leads to civil wars. Anarchy dooms your future. India is toooooooooo big a nation for experimentation. Unproven Rahul, Anarchist Kejriwal or Communal Mulayam etc., are too risky.

I tell my friends to trust #NaMo4PM. Once you read this fully, you might agree with me.

Activism saying everyone is chor is good only on streets. But you need a govt for security, infrastructure, finance etc. If you don't vote for a quality party that can form government, it is as good as not voting. And those who don't vote also need infrastructure, healthcare, education, jobs, security, services and more. So please pick the least dangerous and most effective choice.

Always vote for a party that helps in job creation. India needs crores of regular jobs and  Self-employment type, and not the useless casual jobs like MNREGA. A govt should simply play a referee, rather than being an employer. It already has crores of government and public sector employees to feed, so it definitely does not need more.

Those who came to job market between 1950 and 1991 were screwed. Four decades of socialism and exessive populism of Nehru, Indira and Rajiv had emptied India's treasury and pushed it to bankruptcy. I clearly remember how the 1980s youth were so frustrated and always abusing the system and government. Mindless and excessive socialism had killed private jobs. Please don't let India slip back to it.

India has over 17% of the world's population, but is a part of under 2% of the world's trade. That's a huge problem and a clear result of failed socialistic economic policies. Support a pro-trade and pro-capitalist leader like Narendra Modi for your future. I am convinced that among the choices we have in front of us today, he is the best when it comes to creation of jobs, boosting international trade and attracting investment to India.

Watch some 1970s or 1980s films in most Indian languages:- Dictator leaders, anarchist system and jobless youth in a crime prone society. The much celebrated "Angry young man" was a product of that failed system, while many other developing countries overtook India by miles. Don't let India slip back to such mess. Making a profit was a sin during Indira Gandhi's 1970s when the upper tax rate was in 90% or more!! Can you believe it? If you earn Rs.10,000, you pay taxes well over Rs.9,000! Such system encouraged black money, hawala and in turn serious crime.

MNREGA kind of casual job creation using our tax money is also fundamentally wrong. A 25 year old, who just moves stones from one end of the road to another for Rs.140/day, develops NO skills for a productive future job. And worse, many get paid moving any stones either, due to severe corruption.  I am from a generation which saw liberalization and global trade revolutionizing job market. High paying private jobs are the ONLY way forward.

If we do not ensure a Modi win in May 2014, India may slip back to the horrible 1990 and 1991 situation - begging the IMF, pledging gold, facing humiliating conditions and more.

It hurts me when I see folks in 20s wasting their time supporting socialists and anarchists, killing their own future. Always, always remember - If a govt gives something free or at subsidized rates, it takes away YOUR own money meant for infra, security, research, jobs or healthcare.

A government should not work on creating jobs as it is not trained to do that. There are millions of private entrepreneurs who can create jobs. A government must just sit back and support them. Take an example that I have watched right in front of my eyes. 20 years ago, Bengaluru had less than 10000 IT jobs. Today, more than 4,00,000 IT/BT/BPO jobs, plus another 10,00,000 supporting jobs. The city exports Rs. 1,40,000,00,00,000 worth of software earning India a huge cache of valuable foreign exchange. That's the power of private jobs when governments just sit on the side with regulation and infrastructure development.

I hope you will make the right choice in 2014.. Say no to anarchists.. say no to the socialists.. say yes to responsible capitalists and pro-trade folks. Yes, they may not be perfect, but here is the bottom line. If your son, daughter or some other young family member can earn Rs. 20,000 as the starting monthly salary, the monthly subsidy of Rs.200 for water, Rs.600 worth of free power, 30 KG of rice at Re. 1, free mixie, and other stuff just does not matter. Creating and sustaining jobs is the best way a government can serve the society. That's the ONLY way to remove poverty. Everything else is just sloganeering..