Karnataka polls: Why voters must take 'Santa Claus' PM Modi with a pinch of salt
Prime Minister Narendra Modi has a penchant for promising the moon in his elections rallies. Projecting himself as the Santa Claus of the country, he promises gifts in his election speeches, expecting votes in return. But from the experience of the past four years of his government, it is clear that very few of these gifts get delivered after elections.
In the elections rallies in poll-bound Karnataka, Modi is making several new promises every day.
Should the people of Karnataka trust him. Here's a look at some of these promises.
1) Resolving Mahadayi water dispute with Goa
On Saturday, 5 May, Modi told the people of Gadag in Karnataka that he will resolve the three decade long dispute over water-sharing from the Mahadayi river which flows in Karnataka and Goa. The dispute between Karnataka and Goa over sharing water from the Mahadayi and its tributaries began in 1980 when Karnataka witnessed violent protests by farmers in Nargund district, demanding water for irrigating their fields.
Mahadayi Water Disputes Tribunal (MWDT) has been overseeing the issue and has the mandate to deliver a compromise formula between the two states. The tribunal was supposed to deliver its verdict by 2016, but it got a one-year extension, followed by another one-year extension in 2017. According to the latest information, the verdict is expected by August 2018.
But going by the past record, there is no surety that the tribunal will give any verdict even in August this year. Second, even if there is a verdict, Modi and his government would not be in any position to get it enforced in Goa, even though it is a BJP-ruled state.
Modi's inability was exposed by the statement of Goan water resources minister Vinod Palyekar that his state was not in a position to share Mahadayi river water with Karnataka. This was in contrast to Goa CM Manohar Parrikar's promise at the behest of Modi and BJP president Amit Shah, that he would share Mahadayi water with Karnataka.
2) 24x7 electricity and water supply
BJP's election manifesto for Karnataka says that if voted to power, their government will provide 24x7 electricity to the people of Karnataka. This promise resonates the famous promise of PM Modi to the people of Uttar Pradesh ahead of the 2014 Lok Sabha elections that he would provide 24x7 power within 60 months.
One only needs to look at the long power cuts in the villages of Uttar Pradesh as well as all those states where BJP government is in power to know that a 24x7 electricity supply in India is still a pipe-dream. Barring Delhi (ruled by AAP) and Himachal Pradesh (a power surplus state) most states do not get uninterrupted power supply.
3) Farm loan waiver
BJP has promised loan waiver of up to Rs1 lakh owed by farmers; to nationalised banks. At a time of farm distress in the country, such a promise looks appealing to the farmers of Karnataka. However, one only needs to look at the statement of none other than Finance Minister Arun Jaitley in June 2017, when he said: “I have already made the position clear that states, which want to go in for these kind of schemes [farm loans waiver] will have to generate them from their own resources. Beyond that the Central government has nothing more to say.”
In 2017, many states including Punjab, Maharashtra and Uttar Pradesh had announced farm loan waivers with the hope that the Centre will help them. Unfortunately, the Union government outrightly rejected their demand. State governments had to shell out money from their own coffers, hindering other development projects. Now, it is difficult to believe that the Centre will give a special treatment to Karnataka, by allocating central funds to help the farmers in the state.
Apart from these promises, the voters of Karnataka would do well to remember Modi's habit of refusing to meet his promises by citing technical problems.
The case of Andhra Pradesh, that was promised a special status ahead of Lok Sabha polls by BJP, is a case in point. Even after being in power for four years, Modi government refused to fulfill its promise saying that the 14th finance commission had done away with such category in its nomenclature, hence the central government was helpless.
Due to this, the disgruntled Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh, Chandrababu Naidu, had to walk out of the NDA alliance earlier this year.
The list of broken promises by PM Modi is long, but no review of the unfulfilled promises by his party can be completed without recalling the famous 'jumla' that would have made every Indian richer by Rs 15 lakh. Therefore, every voter in Karnataka needs to take the grand promises by the Santa Claus PM, with a pinch of salt.
First published: 8 May 2018, 21:22 IST
