Page 18 - EW Jan 2024_Neat
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Editorial
WHY BJP SWEPT ASSEMBLY ELECTIONS BJP leadership’s — and in particular
prime minister Modi’s — awareness
of the importance of these quotidian
he sweeping victory of the bjp in — ensuring a common opposition (IN- necessities and the daily living expe-
three out of four legislative as- DIA) candidate in all 543 Lok Sabha rience of the subaltern classes that
Tsembly elections — Rajasthan, constituencies to prevent splitting of swung their vote in BJP’s favour.
Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh anti-BJP votes — is implemented. A second factor is that unlike the
— whose results were declared on However, this is contingent upon Congress and other opposition par-
December 3, has some important les- understanding how and why the BJP ties, the BJP has its students wing
sons for INDIA (Indian National De- swept these latest assembly elections, and RSS karyakartas as a strong and
velopmental Inclusive Alliance) and a highlight of which was that all par- dedicated grassroots cadre. They en-
the Congress party which is likely to ties promised a range of revadis or sure that the freebies and subsidies
lead this 28-party alliance in General freebies. The difference between the reach the government’s target groups.
Election 2024 scheduled for next sum- BJP and other parties was the cred- In the decades under Congress rule,
mer. BJP ousted incumbent Congress ibility of freebies promised and care- much of the welfare allocations for the
governments in Rajasthan and Chhat- ful targeting. It’s no surprise that in all poor and marginalized were siphoned
tisgarh and bucked anti-incumbency states, BJP overwhelmingly won the away by India’s notorious bureaucra-
tradition to retain Madhya Pradesh. women’s vote because it has a record cy. BJP’s dedicated constituency and
The consolation prize for Congress of providing subsidies which lighten booth level cadres ensure that welfare
was Telangana in which this grand old the daily burden of women — subsi- allocations and subsidies proclaimed
party secured an unlikely victory oust- dised cooking gas, reaching tap water by the Central and state governments
ing the incumbent Bharatiya Rashtra to village homes and deposit of cash reach targeted beneficiaries.
Samithi which had successfully led a subsidies directly into targeted bene- In the new digital age of the in-
prolonged struggle for separate state- ficiaries bank accounts through latest ternet and ubiquitous social media,
hood for Telangana granted in 2014. digital technology usage. the rules of electoral democracy have
This scorecard suggests that Con- The advantage of the BJP is that its changed. The pathetic living condi-
gress — the sole pan-India party in the leaders have experienced food, hous- tions of bottom-of-pyramid house-
country apart from BJP — is down but ing and shelter deprivation. The Con- holds can no longer be fudged and
not quite out. If it can ensure that the gress leadership — especially the Neh- ameliorative freebies have to be seen
prime strategy of the INDIA alliance ru-Gandhi dynasty — has not. It’s the to be delivered.
LOCAL GOVERNANCE CAN SAVE INDIA'S CITIES government in village and urban In-
dia. All rural districts and cities were
delimited into village panchayats and
n the latest mercer index 2023 of spired socialism as the official ideol- municipal wards. This model of local
the world’s most livable cities, Hy- ogy of the State after independence, self-governance inspired by the highly
Iderabad is top-ranked in India. But was that the annual rate of economic successful cantons and borough local
in the global index, it is ranked a low- growth was stuck in the 3.5 percent governments of Western Europe, ne-
ly #153. Urban blight defined by air per year groove for almost half a cen- cessitates devolution of considerable
pollution, road traffic jams, frequent tury. As a result, population growth, tax and spend powers on local govern-
electricity and water supply cuts, poor low productivity and fragmentation of ments. Unsurprisingly, selfish state
law and order maintenance, is spread- landholdings prompted steady migra- governments have not devolved any
ing across big and small cities, mak- tion of ill-educated and illiterate rural significant tax collection and expen-
ing the lives of citizens nasty, brutal citizens into India’s relatively prosper- diture powers on local government
and short. In Bangalore, commuting ous cities and towns. institutions.
by road to any suburb takes as much For kith and kin considerations, a Industry, academia and the intel-
time as flying to Mumbai. In Educa- large number of rural migrants were ligentsia need to press for enabling
tionWorld’s 24th Anniversary issue, absorbed into the lowermost tier of the 74th and 93rd Amendment Acts to
we examined why unprecedented government, i.e, municipal corpora- save India’s collapsing cities. Powers
numbers of HNWI (high net worth tions and local government. Equipped to collect property taxes in particular
individuals), highly educated profes- at best with pro forma qualifications need to be devolved upon ward com-
sionals and skilled labour are migrat- and accustomed to the routine retail mittees comprising elected property
ing to developed OECD countries (see corruption of village India, they per- owners in every ward. Restricted fran-
https://www.educationworld.in/why- mitted the reckless, unplanned growth chise is important because only prop-
are-indians-succeeding-everywhere- of urban India bringing it to the edge erty owners will have a vested interest
except-in-india/). In that cover story, of disaster. in ensuring orderly ward-level gover-
poor quality of civic life was insuffi- It’s not as though no attention has nance because it will enhance prop-
ciently identified as a major cause. On been paid to this problem. In 1992, two erty values. The solution to saving In-
second thought, it is a major driver of important amendments to the Consti- dia’s collapsing cities is buried in the
emigration. tution resulted in the Rural Panchay- Constitution. It is for the intelligentsia
An inevitable consequence of fool- ats and Mahanagarpalika Acts being to build the pressure of public opinion
ish adoption of inorganic Soviet in- passed by Parliament to enable local for its implementation.
18 EDUCATIONWORLD JANUARY 2024