When the Modi government came to power in 2014, people had huge expectations from it. Four years have already passed but the administrative failures have come to haunt the government as it prepares for the next year’s Lok Sabha polls. The government always claims to be forward-looking but it takes two steps backward due to faulty implementation of the policies. Most of the policies announced by the government only look good on paper but is plagued by several loopholes. Earlier, the BJP had blamed the erstwhile UPA government for rising corruption in the country. The party had come to the power by vowing to eliminate corruption from the country but it continues to exist.
Advocate Manisha Rote, Mahila Pradesh Congress General Secretary, said, “BJP had promised to eliminate corruption but it has increased after they came to power. The party follows a principle i.e. rich should be richer and poor should become poorer. The government has not taken steps to improve per capita income and standard of living of citizens. They have cheated the farmers by announcing fake loan waiver scheme. The government is functioning in an autocratic manner.”
Even though four years have passed ever since the Lokpal and Lokayuktas Act 2013 was passed by the Parliament but the Modi government is yet to appoint Lokpal. The government has been stating that the appointment of Lokpal has been stalled due to the lack of opposition leader to represent in the selection committee. Citizens and RTI activists too have been urging the government to appoint the Lokpal at the earliest. Finally, the Supreme Court had to intervene in this matter as it had asked the government to mention a time frame to appoint the Lokpal in the country. A bench comprising justices Ranjan Gogoi and R Banumathi asked the government to file an affidavit within 10 days giving details of the steps which are likely to be taken for appointing the Lokpal. Thus, the government lacks the political will to eliminate corruption from the country and has been delaying the appointment of the Lokpal.
NCP leader Vidya Chavan said, “The BJP government lacks administration skills. Bureaucrats don’t take them seriously and don’t follow or implement the decisions. The government has failed to complete their task within deadline hence it gets delayed. Why have they failed to appoint the Lokpal since last four years? For the appointment of the Lokpal, there is a need to establish a new administrative system which they are unaware of.”
Last year, the government had asked citizens to compulsorily link Aadhaar for opening bank account, gas subsidy, PAN number, mutual funds and life insurance policies. Later, citizens had filed a Public Interest Litigation with the Supreme Court. The apex court then questioned the government for making Aadhaar mandatory for availing several services. The Supreme Court is hearing this matter and yet to deliver its final verdict. The first deadline for linking Aadhaar was July 31, 2017, which was extended to August 31. The deadline was later extended to December 31 of the same and then March 31, 2018. It also had made the quoting of the Aadhaar mandatory for filing income tax returns and obtaining a new PAN card.
Shiv Sena Spokesperson Manisha Kayande said, “The government has failed to manage issues like communalisation, Kashmir insurgency, Nirav Modi-PNB fraud, Maratha, and Gujjar reservation. They have failed to fulfil the promises made by them to people. BJP is only indulging in publicity stunt like Swachh Bharat and celebrating Yoga Day.”
“One person is running the entire country. All senior leaders of BJP are working silently under Modi’s leadership. Earlier BJP had criticised the Congress for introducing Aadhaar card but now they are deriving mileage out of it. There is a lack of planning and preparedness on the part of the government,” she added.
On June 30, 2018, the government once again extended the deadline to link Aadhaar with PAN to March 31, 2019. Thus, those people who have not yet linked their Aadhaar with PAN has got reprieved. When the government had hastily announced the decision asking citizens to link Aadhaar for obtaining several services, it didn’t think about the difficulties people will face for the same. For instance, when the government had asked citizens to link the Aadhaar with the mobile number, senior citizens had to face severe hardships as the biometric device was unable to read their fingerprints. Many others were finding it difficult to visit the telecom service outlet to link their Aadhaar number.
BJP spokesperson Shirish Boralkar said, “The government has taken a strong stand against corruption including Nirav Modi and Vijay Mallya cases. These frauds had occurred during the UPA reign; however, it came into the limelight after the Modi government came to power. The Supreme Court intervenes when there is some delay on the part of the government to frame policies and implement them. We are committed to eliminate corruption. The decision to postpone linking of Aadhaar with PAN was taken to cover the maximum number of people.”
The government’s decision to ban high-value currency notes had surprised the citizens. As a result of this, many people had lost their lives by standing in the queues outside the banks. Citizens were also facing severe hardships due to the sudden announcement of invalidation of Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 currency notes. The Goods and Services Tax Act (GST) was passed in a haste thereby creating inconvenience for businessmen. Initially, tax-payers had to face several difficulties due to glitches in the GST website.
Moumita mukherjee
