- As Indians, we are aware that the wealth distribution in the country is not only unevenly spread across the huge swathe of landscape with lopsided preference accruing to the rich but also leaving the lower strata of society struggling for a dignified existence. Despite decades of efforts to ensure wealth creation on the back of the country’s progression also benefits the last man standing, the phenomenon of the rich getting richer and the poor becoming poorer continues unabated. The government rhetoric by highlighting the GDP growth to showcase how the economy is performing doesn’t transform into something cheerful for the common citizens hoping to move up on the social ladder. Not for nothing we are still considered a developing nation, but aspirational.
PC: Times of India
- This is where the political spin doctors step in to show everything is hunky-dory. The political class is quite adroit at spreading a narrative that we are on the right path of growth with spending power heading northwards on a perpetual note. How far we are from reality needs no further emphasis. This is the season of the mother of all elections, the Lok Sabha polls. And our spin doctors are out in full force again to showcase the other political party in a poor light. Ideally, a high-tempo argument between the two protagonists viz. the BJP and Congress-led opposition on the distribution of state resources and wealth inequality should have been grounded in the larger question of structural issues often hidden by economic growth figures. Not happening, you see.
- Expectedly, what we are witnessing is a polarizing campaign rhetoric about Muslims. PM Modi gave a speech in Rajasthan recently, and Congress has gone to EC against it. Why? Congress and others point to the party’s 2024 manifesto and the 2006 Manmohan Singh speech, which Modi referred to. The argument from the BJP is that Congress’s manifesto does talk of wealth inequality but doesn’t anywhere refer to wealth being redistributed to anyone, Muslims or otherwise, that Singh’s speech referred to many groups that need special policy attention, SC/STs, OBCs, women, children, minorities including Muslims; and that Singh hadn’t said only Muslims have the first claim on resources. Of course, the BJP wishes to highlight the appeasement politics of the opposition.
PC: Times of India
- Further, BJP strategists are also pointing to a Rahul Gandhi campaign speech that talked about a wealth survey. In that speech, Rahul mentioned that post a census on caste and minority numbers, wealth, jobs, and welfare will be distributed per every group’s share in the population. Politics, on all sides, is about taking your opponent’s words and spinning those to your advantage. Period. The larger point is India doesn’t need rhetoric from any party on resource distribution that gets embroiled in identity politics. Once such links are made, politics around it can acquire a life of its own, far removed from real issues. The real issue is benefits of India’s brisk growth, for a long time, have been unevenly distributed. This must be addressed by the party/alliance in power. Simple.
