Page 19 - June2018

Hindi, and asked a set of forty questions It got crores of people in the banking Congress President giving him a report
to Prime Minister Narendra Modi. They net under its financial inclusion pro- card of A+ in self-promotion and F in
also released and showed a short-film gramme by allowing them to open Jan job creation.
describing the prevailing atmosphere Dhan accounts with zero balance. The The government has also failed to
in the country. A senior Congress leader government continued with alacrity bring peace in Kashmir, which is pass-
Oommen Chandy also posed a bar- with the UPA government’s much tout- ing through one of the worst phases of
rage of questions to PM Modi on issues ed scheme of direct benefit of subsidy disturbance. It has not come up to ex-
ranging from the fuel price hike to and brought all welfare and subsidy pectations to contain the fringe parties
the Lokpal Bill. In a tweet, Chandy schemes under Direct Benefit Transfer of Hindutva brigade who are flaring up
requested the prime minister to “be to prevent theft, leakage of subsidy to peace and harmony in our country thus
kind enough to answer.” fake and fictitious persons. giving rise to slogans of intolerance.
The government has done well and-
Ecstasy & gloom kept it simple: do away with redundant Small reforms
The government claims to be free from and obsolete laws. In 2016, the Lok Sab- In 2014, the government decided that
corruption. Though opposition has lev- ha repealed 1,175 of 1,827 laws that were there was no need to get documents
eled unsubstantiated charges against identified as obsolete, and many other attested by a gazetted officer or file af-
the government, the greatest achieve- steps were taken to make lives of com- fidavits for government-related work.
ment of this government is to provide a mon people easier. Many of these re- After the decision, applicants only need
corruption free regime. It is remarkable forms went unnoticed in the four years to self-attest the copies of their birth
that there is no allegation of corruption of Modi-led NDA government. certificates, mark sheets or other docu-
against the Modi government in this However, the government failed to ments.The Modi government did away
period. It claims 100 per cent electri- pass the Land Acqusition Act and Lok- with birth certificates as a mandatory
fication of the villages in the country. pal Bill which has adversely affected document for availing passport. The
The government has increased the to- the Make-in-India campaign of the government simplified the 1980 rule of
tal LPG Consumer base to over 20 crore government. You cannot acquire land securing passports by Indian citizens.
in 2017 from 14 crore in 2014. The Modi for any development purpose under Now, Aadhaar and PAN card are among
Government ended the VVIP culture by the current law. It has failed to create as a host of documents that could be
doing away with beacons for everyone. many jobs as it has promised leading to used to establish proof of birth. Indian

tehelka / 15 june 2018 19 www.tehelka.com

18-20 Special Report Hiteshi.indd 3 06/06/18 1:16 PM