Gadkari's remarks call for ‘Atmanirbhar Bharat 2047' reality check

Hans India

15 hours ago

It is quite rare for an incumbent Union minister to openly admit that, at times, statistical figures may not always reflect the ground realities. It takes guts for a minister to come up with facts that debunk theories floated by the government in power as regards claims about achievements and 'steady' economic growth. Although, on the face of it, India has this year pipped Japan to emerge as the world's fourth-largest economy in terms of GDP, the fact of the matter is that the country is yet to come out of the shackles of economic inequality. UNDP's latest report on Asia-Pacific Human Development states that the addition of around 40 billionaires has taken their count to 143, while, in these intervening years, 46 million Indians have been pushed to the BPL strata. One must give it to the Union Road Transport and Highways Minister Nitin Gadkari, who, on Saturday, dared to come up with some chilling facts and figures that are in stark contrast to the lofty claims of the NDA government at the Centre, which continues to harp on the 'fastest growing major economy' tag. Their projections appear as if the country is doing 'wonderfully well' across sectors, even as the government remains silent on the darker side of the 'vibrant' economy.
Expressing concern over the 'rising' number of poor, and wealth getting concentrated in the hands of a limited number of people, Gadkari was bang on with his call for decentralisation of wealth. While lauding former prime ministers P V Narasimha Rao and Dr Manmohan Singh for pursuing growth-oriented economic policies,
Gadkari cautioned against unchecked centralisation and the imbalances in sectoral contributions to the GDP.
Underscoring the need to focus on creating jobs and uplift the rural folk, he noted, 'There is a need for decentralisation of wealth. Agriculture, despite engaging 65-70 per cent of the rural population, contributes only around 12 per cent.' The minister was not being critical but speaking his heart out, while putting things in their right perspective. Disparity exists even among Indian states, many of which are 'prosperous' while in other States, people continue to stare at abject poverty,
Notwithstanding the fact that the country's per capita income has risen from $442 to $2,389 in the last 20 years, the reality is that whatever income and wealth that was generated in these two decades has been garnered by a miniscule section of the population (the elite class) while the misery of the poor has turned nightmarish, despite a multitude of government-sponsored welfare schemes.
Many economists assert that the disparity has widened since 2017 following the introduction of Goods and Services Tax (GST) and lowering of the corporate tax rate. Irrespective of the reasons behind the GST move, one must not forget that this hangs as the 'Sword of Damocles', on the middle class and BPL families. People in the know have always wondered at the growing inequality despite the steady economic growth in the past few years. There is a well-orchestrated demand to introduce wealth tax as a measure to check the existing inequality from getting wider, while duly earmarking the revenue so generated for welfare schemes, education and healthcare. Laws should be so tightly framed and implemented that the rich, unwilling to dole out wealth tax, don't make a beeline to tax havens. Viksit Bharat 2027, anyone?