Page 18 - EW Jan 2024_Neat
P. 18

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
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