Modi said Indians should be AATMANIRBHAR, will the government also follow Modi’s footsteps and be self-reliant?
Since the era of black and white, India has chosen to stand with support. The Britishers ruled for over 2 centuries on this land and were successful to strengthen the roots of their culture in their land. A time arrived when adopting their culture was named modernization. During the Swadeshi Andolan, the activists did try to bring back the khadi culture and pin down the western clothing but never succeeded to do so because Indian goodies were expensive and the poor cannot opt for that lifestyle. The arrival of the British did shake the grounds of native markets in this land but people didn’t really do anything about it. Its more than 70 years of independence but can we still claim that we as a nation can stand independently? I feel the answer must be a no. All these years even after independence we chose to rely on Chinese products. Our markets were flooded with “Made in China” goodies.
Narendra Damodar Modi got his Prime Ministerial powers in the year 2014 and since then he has announced various schemes that seemed to have a motive of empowering India like the Digital India which had a motive of strengthening the power of digitalization in the country and the one which became trendy, Make in India. This was his plan to empower the native economy by making people believe to opt for Indian made goods rather than imported goods. A nation is said to be on the balanced side of the economy seesaw when its exports are more than its import and when the case is another way around it is said to be unbalanced. And India witnessed the unbalanced stage for a long time and this clarifies how the consumers are more inclined towards the imported products than the indigenous one. From this, we understand that Modi’s Make in India scheme was not really getting way in the nation.
Currently, the world is traumatized by the deadly spread of coronavirus. The virus has not only affected the beings physically but also financially. Every economical sector suffered because of lockdown maintained all across the globe and India was no different. PM Modi looking at the worsening economy asked the citizen of the nation to opt for “local over global” and emphasized the concept of Aatmanirbhar Bharat that means self -reliant India. But how far was that concept followed? It took an Indi-Chini clash to just ban the Chinese apps from the nation for far is this “self-dependent” plan practical?
Anyways now people will still choose to avoid Chinese products because of the “national security.” But the question arises is the government itself self-reliant?
It is rightly said that preach what you believe. Now let’s understand the existence of hypocrisy in this Aatmabirbharta.
How is a government self-reliant when it has to beg for votes to stand as a representative. Now people might misunderstand the statement and think as if I might be questioning the base of democracy. But no. The thing is political leaders beg for votes and stand in power for the next 5 years. The crucial question is why aren’t these people’s representatives visible anywhere near the needy in these 5 years?
How is a government independent when the nation is most of the time ruled with alliances? Democracy is a well-admired concept that is followed by the nation but it tags along with the concept of majorities that possesses quite loopholes in it. The insufficiency in the majority leads to building alliances. When a political party is not self-reliant how can ts ask the citizens to be so?
Elections are the times when the real game finally comes in front and takes off its masks. How many people vote in an election knowing about the MLA of their respective regions? Mostly none. people vote for the bigger people and hence when that MLA belongs to the same particular party, he/she directly gets into power. Isn’t this co-existing where people vote for the party face or a specific party and the MLA gets the power chair? It is not necessary that the tables cannot turn. Sometimes a particular MLA is well recognized and gains people’s vote and any opportunist party just waits for the right time for asking his or her price to drag him or her into their respective parties. This how the public becomes a part of the dirty game. Political games are the biggest example to prove that how the government itself runs away from the concept of if independency. When was the last time a government played completely fair in this game and gained the desired by their own effort and input?
Every Citizen of this country is bound to pay some amount of his earning to the government in the form tax. How is the government self-reliant when it is working on the taxes paid by the people? And to be very specific, if the government claims to use these taxes which they collect through direct and indirect taxes from people as a welfare fund why can’t nay of the politician point out any evident expenditure? The people should know where their hard-earned money is being utilized. These taxes named as GST nowadays on essential products like sanitizers, sanitary napkins, and others should not be taken the government can act so self-reliantly.
Okay, one can say taxation has been questioned numerous times and somehow people have proved that its needed one way other for the working of a government. In the advertisements, it is often highlighted that a citizen is ought to pay taxes. When an economic breakdown is suffered by the country why doesn’t the government use these taxes to fulfill the need of the hour? PM relief funds are normally collected from people as a form of donation when a natural calamity like floods happens and the sufferings increased. This time it was even asked for the hard-hit economically weaker section of the society after the COVID-19 outbreak. Why did the government had te need to ask for donations if they claim themselves to be the devotees of self-reliance?
It can be concluded t the end that the concept of self-dependency is not so strong, and so far not so practically applicable. Existing with co-living has been in the very roots of the nation and suddenly walking alone will be a literal task. the world believes in an old saying that charity begins at home and if the government can play in its own ground how does it expects the complete nation to play well on the same ground. The nation still depends on bulky imports, alliance rule and many such things which is hard to believe would exist independently. If the government answers these might be there is a possible chance that people fall for Aatmanirbharta.
