Achievements of UPA

Achievements are the measure of one's performance. If we have to ascertain the performance of the present Govt of india, one has to find out their performances. With nothing to boast, this govt had listed many achievements that had no relation of the Govt nor their contribution. A school of thought.

Aam Aadmi: If it was garibi hatao decades ago, it was the turn of aam aadmi in the last elections. God only knows that what the govt did for the aam aadmi in these 5 years. The biggest achievement is that the population of the BPL is increased by 20% than what it was 5 years ago. The rich and the poor divide kept on increasing. Not very recently, ex-RBI Governor made a statement that the cumulative wealth of 20 richest Indians is more than the cumulative wealth of 30 crore poorest Indians! Another irony is those who figure in the top 10 richest Indians do not figure in the top 10 income-tax payers’ list.

This is the biggest service they did to the Aam Aadmi – to increase their population of BPL so that these aam aadmi would return them to power with their votes! Yes this government is for the aam aadmi to keep in them in this band and as far as welfare is concerned, this is for the Khaas aadmi.

Economic scenario: Inflation is an index that is given on the basis of average calculations of the present situation vis-à-vis preceding weeks. The inflation has shot so high that the average is now showing almost zero inflation. They boast of near-zero inflation as an achievement whereas all of us are aware how far the prices of essential commodities soared high. The way they played around the petroleum prices as the elections approached near showed their ability or the lack of it to control the prices.

The economic figures can be cooked but this Government had made it possible that none in the poor category would be able to cook anything at their home.

Unemployment: Unemployment is a perennial problem in India and considering its population it would be very difficult to provide employment to all. The present day problem is not about unemployment for fresh job seekers but of those who are employed already. Here again, let us not discuss about the white-collared employments where pink-slips are issued in the name of downsizing or rightsizing. Let us discuss about those who lost their jobs in the unorganized sector – real estate (labors in construction) etc., this is fully attributed to the severe economic crisis that has plagued us now.

Who is responsible for the crisis to grow faster and eat us away? It is none other than the present government. Had they acted proactively, there could have been improvements. Forget about alternate measures not even a damage control exercise was carried out. The Government allowed the crisis to have its run (or ruin) and die on its own.

National security: The entire world is aware of the fact that India is a very soft target. Courtesy, its undecided, unclear diplomacy, India has been a victim of cross-border terrorism since the early 1980s. However, the past 5 years were the most agonizing period.

Forget about attacks from outside, people have started attacking us from inside with support from outside. Month after month, bomb blasts ripped our cities killing thousands of innocent lives. Our Home minister was busy changing suits and issuing statements after statements. To expect anything more than that was the fault of the person.

Adding insult to injury is that this Minister, who was rejected by the people in elections, owed his post to the loyalty he expressed towards the family went on record with his statement, “How can we hang Afzal Guru when we are demanding Sarabjit’s release?” What a shame? The minister is not even aware that Afzal Guru is an Indian, convicted by the courts of India and still the Govt lacked the guts to hang him whereas Sarabjit is a foreigner in Pakistan and his case is a case of mistaken identity.

The totally incompetent minister was allowed to be at the helm of affairs for almost entire tenure of this government thus providing all sorts of ammunition to the enemies of our country. As the election approached and the 26/11 bomber rocked this Government from their slumber, it had to do an “eye-wash” exercise by removing him and bringing in another.

Once it was found that personnel of one particular community are behind the successive blasts, the Government floated another theory of “Hindu-terrorism” just to polarize people on the lines of religion. Islamic or Hindu terrorism, this Government failed miserable in tackling terrorism. They failed to realize that as long as terrorism is viewed with the lens of religion, forget about combating the cant even face it.

In the name of secularism and appeasement to Muslims, the first thing this Government did was to repeal the POTA. Was POTA anti-muslim law? If so, who said so or who projected it so? When congress ruled state had similar law why such laws were not allowed to practice in states ruled by BJP? What do they wanted to prove? What’s wrong in saying this act as an act of perverse mind?

Corruption: Mr. Manmohan Singh may be personally Mr. Clean but he aided all practices of corruption in his tenure. He allowed the misuse of institutions. The glaring one being allowing Ottavio Quattrocchi, the prime accused in Bofors Scandal to go scot-free. The other one being sending official letters to extend favors (out of the way) to a company that never existed but owned by the relatives of Union Minister Mr. TR Baalu. Adding insult to injury was, Baalu opened asked, “Whats wrong in it” in the Parliament and our Prime Minister supported his argument making it obvious the PMO has been extending favors. The third one is the “Cash for Votes” scam. Every time the Congress was in a minority they flexed all their muscles and tried to retain in power by all means. When Dayanidi Maran was forced out of the cabinet, his colleague Raja blamed Maran of corruption practices in the ministry. What happened to those complaints? Why no actions were taken on those complaints? Let us not discuss about the 6% commission charges paid on buying ammunition from Israel.

To fool public they projected a clean image Prime Minister but this puppet is maneuvered to do all the corrupt practices by misusing the office.

IMDT: This is the biggest joke of this Government. After Indira Gandhi manipulated with words and made this law sting-less just for allowing Bangladeshi infiltrators to invade India (for the sake of votes and numbers in Parliament), this Government went over board by doing nothing on it. In fact the Supreme Fact slapped the Union Government and described this as “External aggression” and the Government promised the Court that they will look into. All they did is to form a panel and do nothing else. Bangladeshis are invading India, getting Indian citizenship and stealing ourselves from our home land. This infiltration what started with Assam had now spread to West Bengal, Maharashtra and other states too. This Government is not even bothered about the report presented to it by the former IB chief (present Governor of UP) that this infiltration would lead to another partition of India in north-east.

Expenses: Our beloved Prime Minister advised all of us to adapt austere measurements and pruning of expenses considering the deteriorating economic situation. However, they could not do with their jumbo cabinet. When the economic situation brought the nation to severe crisis, they spent around Rs 300 crores of public money on advertisements in Print Media only. The advertisement by others means would run into another few hundreds of crores.

This Government rewarded the dishonesty – they waived off loan amounts taken from the co-operative banks for farmers. All of us are aware that cooperative banks are in the hands of politicians and who would have got benefited from it. The honest payers did not get any incentive let alone reprieve. This is how this Government rewarded honesty. How can we expect them to give us a corruption-free government?

The functioning of Indian government organizations is well known to one and all. It is the utmost illustration of how not to function an office! With the sixth pay commission recommendations being implemented, there is no word on the accountability of the workers in this sect. The Government has not even thought of it.

As the expenses soared high, the Government kept on borrowing money from RBI (went on printing currency to the tune of Rs 60000 crore). Where it will lead is known only to the economists as I am not an expert in this field.

Infra structure: While this Government is well known for christening all their projects with their first family names, they have not even considered a re-look into the projects initiated by the NDA Government though it meant well for the country. The Golden Quadrilateral project that completed almost 81% of the task for that period had now only completed 51% of the period in these 5 years. However, our PM promises a Shangai out of Mumbai and the cramped roads are an eyesore!

Nuclear Deal: Though delayed, It was indeed a good step taken by this Government. Still we could have done better. Now the deal is hanging on signing the pact with IAEA.

There are several others that need to be attended but this Government preferred to sleep.