In a few days, the finance minister will present the first budget of the third Modi government. Far from celebrating path-breaking reforms, this time, the optics are dire on many fronts. So much so that even its powerful social media cell, amplified by a million ‘influencers’ and AI-powered bots cannot control the narrative or conceal the impact of poor planning, hasty implementation and disconnect from the people. Reality has completely overwhelmed the rhetoric.
The National Democratic Alliance (NDA), despite significantly reduced seats and a strong signal of discontent from the electorate, began its term as though nothing had changed. Prime minister (PM) Narendra Modi reinforced this message by retaining his core team of ministers as well as the speaker of the Lok Sabha, giving away little, in terms of key ministries, to political allies. But that is about all it can do in terms of political signalling. The negative optics, generated on a daily basis, are beyond the government’s control. Consider these:
Income Inequality: The choreographed spectacle of opulence and lavish display of wealth at Anant Ambani’s wedding was broadcast across India by fawning television channels and social media influencers. But the videos of the extravagant wedding invitations, 250-item menus when juxtaposed with chilling reports of poor children, in other parts of India, being served rice with turmeric and salt as midday meal for a whole month made for a sorry picture.
The Ambani family indeed has every right to spend its stupendous personal wealth as it pleases. Moreover, the Ambanis also made charitable gestures like funding a mass wedding of 50 poor couples and hosting a 40-day free public feast (bhandara) for the hoi polloi at their home in Mumbai. It has also been argued that the world loves pomp and pageantry, but that is usually when it is associated with national pride or royalty; it is not equally true of over-the-top display of riches by business oligarchs. In fact, the never-ending festivities, although closely followed by people, have only drawn attention to the vast income disparity in India.
The top 1% of people, comprising India’s super-rich, hold 53% of the nation’s wealth. The bottom 50% owns a miserable 4.1%, and over 810 mn (million) people survive on 5kg (kilogrammes) of free grain distributed by the government. This, in contrast to the lavish wedding, created bad optics primarily for the government in power.
For a majority of Indians, the depressing reality of their daily lives drowns out macro data thrown at them such as India ranking 5th in the world in terms of gross domestic product (GDP) and aspiring to be a US $5trn (trillion) economy growing at 7.2%. International media reports about the big-fat Ambani wedding also make it a point to mention how India ranks very low in world equality rankings. A UNDP report of 2023 says, a third of all poor people in the world live in South Asia (389mn), of which a significant number is in India.
Infrastructure: A recurring image of the past five years is that of PM Modi inaugurating mega infrastructure projects such as roads, tunnels, airports, bridges and railway stations; or flagging off a series high-end trains. Beautiful videos of these grand projects were widely circulated on social media as signs of unprecedented infrastructure development. Many Indians voted for the NDA on the expectation that we were on the fast-track to being a developed nation, thereby generating employment opportunities and lifting people out of poverty.
Newly constructed modern airports (Bengaluru, Goa) had leaky roofs. Canopies outside the airport collapsed at Delhi and Jabalpur, while a series of train accidents occurred; leaky rakes and faulty air-conditioning took the sheen off the Vande Bharat trains. The astonishing collapse of 13 bridges in Bihar in less than a month has evoked little political outrage or action. This is not a comprehensive list and does not include the cost and time overruns in major infrastructure projects listed by Debashis Basu in his column this week. Hasn’t the image of rapid progress and development been washed away?
Corruption: A government that came to power promising to eliminate corruption and provide efficient administration using technology to deliver results now faces widespread distrust. Rampant corruption and delays in implementation has undermined faith in government institutions and processes. Shoddy work and illegal clearances have endangered lives without the protection of adequate safety nets. Politicisation of government services and ignoring judicial processes (using bulldozers as a tool for punishment and land acquisition) is being normalised in many states. The Maharashtra government’s response to a horrific road accident in Pune, which triggered enormous public outrage was to demolish illegal construction by bars visited by the underage driver and a hotel owned his father! Such unconnected and illegal actions further erode confidence in police and judicial systems.
Education: Scandals over paper-leaks and job-fixing at centralised examinations for medicine, engineering and public services have demoralised our youth, already struggling with rising education costs and high unemployment rates. Scandalous details about IAS probationer Puja Khedkar that are spilling out over the past two weeks have exposed how easy it is for powerful people to manipulate even the prestigious Union public service commission (UPSC) admission process. She is alleged to have falsified her name, age, income, caste and disability certificates in order to game the system, thereby depriving more deserving candidates.
Corrupting the process gave Ms Khedkar admission to medical college, a job in the revenue service and later to the Indian Administrative Services (IAS). Such impunity is only possible when the entire system is corrupt and complicit about creating and accepting fake documents. It calls into question the identity verification processes such as Aadhaar, which claims to ensure unique identification. Meanwhile, mindless know-your-customer (KYC) processes and Aadhaar have become a tool to deprive people of access to their own money, or their entitlement to direct benefit transfers (DBT) from the government.
Taxation: Middle-class Indians are increasingly frustrated at high taxation amidst rising costs of food, fuel, education, healthcare, tolls, cess and goods and services tax (GST) levies. Recent data shows that gross personal income-tax collection, at Rs3.61 lakh crore in the April-June quarter, has outstripped gross corporate tax collection of Rs2.65 lakh crore.
Research findings show that the bottom 50% of people account for 64% of the total GST payments have gone viral on social media. The government remained oblivious to public anger at paying 18% GST on utilities such as telecom, electricity, healthcare and packaged parathas (not rotis), while gold and diamonds have a low 3% GST.
GST collection rose steadily since its launch in July 2017, but the monthly data will no longer be published. Opinions are mixed about whether this is due to public outrage over high GST or because the growth in collection has slowed down in the past few months, reflecting an economic sluggishness. Neither reason paints a positive picture.
Optics are crucial to politics, especially in a democracy. The presence of political leaders across the spectrum at the extravagant Ambani wedding sent the message that the political class is completely aligned with the oligarchs – whether it is Ambani, Adani, Mallya, Agarwal or Jindal—and will work for their mutual benefit. Ordinary people will be left to deal with the corrupt and creaking system with no social safety net even for diligent taxpayers!
Social media has amplified these bad optics, but the results are seen only at election time. What the union budget does will provide yet another signal, whose results may reflect in the coming set of state elections.
I disagree with the views expressed in this article. issues relating to Inequality, education, corruption, infras tructure are not new to any government. These problem areas hav existed in our country from long time. Therefore to call these problem areas as bad optics for the current government is a wrong noion. no previous governments or current government will be able to provide solution.
I diagree with the views expressed in this article. issues relating to Inequality, education, corruption, infras tructure are not new to any government. THese problem areas hav existed in our country from long time.
Lavish weddings generate a lot of business/job opportunities downstream. There's a market for it and it's great for small businesses who are roped in by wedding planners. Lavish weddings are bumper paydays for these folks. I have absolutely no qualms about obscene OTT weddings because a lot of the money will find its way to the exchequer through GST. Plus, who can resist the gossip, fashion faux pax, and celebrity scandals waiting to happen! It's perfect recipe for drama and popcorn at the expense of the rich! ;)
In "education" you seem to have missed to mention the biggest scandal of all -- the NEET results of 2024! SC forced NTA to disclose region-wise statistics, and just one center in Rajkot has 85% qualifying scores!!! This is the biggest farce since NEET was launched, and this is the sorry state of affairs we have come to after 10 years of BJP.
Madam ! I have already commented on your face book link.
Your write up is awesome replete with facts and figures. While you had mentioned about the Pune Porshe Car mayhem perpetred by a drunken minor rich brat, the equally gory and Schocking killing caused by a rich and son of an influential political big wig Mayur (OrM ihir ?) Shah while driving his BMW in Worli was missing. Both portray rich and State nexus.
While the comments on display of wealth by the Ambani\'s during his son\'s wedding is fine, the amount is spent out of his personal wealth unlike refurbishing of a CMs bungalow in Delhi.
very bad administration with the present govt and only talks and no ground reality.Before covid whatever was concessions given to sr citizens were removed and even after a year is over nothing has come back.So many trains especially passenger trains were stopped and not renewed and only vandebharat is what people is giving interest.
Very well analysed. The once-talked policy paralysis of the UPA seems to have resurfaced. Institutional neglect, lack of monitoring and evaluation of projects, startling inequalities, and bad optics in social media need urgent remedy. Budget providing answers to them is doubtful.
A thorough postmortem of the present situation. Horrifyingly widening gap between the haves and have nots has got underlined by the wedding ceremony. 'Na khaoonga, naa khane doonga' now appears to be a slogan of yesteryears. A bank guarantee can be invoked. How to invoke the GUARANTEE given during recent and past campaigns?
A mirror reflection of the current regime which is meant for Croni Capitalist friends & highly communal agenda dividing the people. No difference between the present regime & the British Rule. Media is now rotten garbage. Stinking to the hilt
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Lavish weddings generate a lot of business/job opportunities downstream. There's a market for it and it's great for small businesses who are roped in by wedding planners. Lavish weddings are bumper paydays for these folks. I have absolutely no qualms about obscene OTT weddings because a lot of the money will find its way to the exchequer through GST. Plus, who can resist the gossip, fashion faux pax, and celebrity scandals waiting to happen! It's perfect recipe for drama and popcorn at the expense of the rich! ;)
Write some positive if u find it,
People will appreciate it.
Your write up is awesome replete with facts and figures. While you had mentioned about the Pune Porshe Car mayhem perpetred by a drunken minor rich brat, the equally gory and Schocking killing caused by a rich and son of an influential political big wig Mayur (OrM ihir ?) Shah while driving his BMW in Worli was missing. Both portray rich and State nexus.