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..