What development is BJP expected to bring after its win in the 2019 elections?Quora Digest

Replied by Mr.Ashok Dhamija

Supreme Court Advocate, Ex-IPS

Well, I am disappointed with the very first development by the new Modi Government. In its very first cabinet meeting held today, the Government announced many freebies, instead of announcing some strong measures to revive the economy.

So, we have extended PM-KISAN Yojana to give free income to 14.5 crore farmers, with ₹ 87217 crore to be spent in one year.

Then, we have pension scheme for 5 crore farmers, a scheme worth ₹ 10774 crore.

Moreover, there is a new scheme for giving pension to 3 crore traders, etc., assuring a minimum of ₹ 3000 pension per month. It is supposed to be a contributory scheme, with Central Government matching the subscription of the traders to the scheme. The amount to be spent on this scheme is not known.

All these decisions were taken in the first cabinet meeting today on 31 May 2019.

This amount could have been spent in a constructive way for creating assets that could have benefited the same group of people.

What was wrong with the NYAY scheme of Congress, then, if BJP was to follow similar freebie schemes? Mind you, the above freebies are in addition to the existing freebie and subsidy schemes. So, the total amount on subsidies / freebies may come around the same amount as was promised in the NYAY scheme.

I was expecting some big bang reforms or some positive policies from the first cabinet meeting of the new Government. May be labour reforms, land reforms, creating good environment for manufacturing, closure of PSUs, etc., etc., so that more jobs could be created and wasteful expenditure could be avoided. But, I am disappointed.

As I have been writing regularly, I don’t mind even bigger amounts being spent to develop people and help them, but then it should be in the form of positive policies, creating assets, creating infrastructure, etc., and not by way of giving freebies.

So, ultimately, the fact remains that…

Howsoever we change, we remain the same. How can we hope India to grow like this?

May be the new Government can follow up with some good policies in the coming days.

But, the beginning is not a good omen. We are likely to fall in the same freebie culture.