A few days ago a Facebook post went viral in India. It contained a list of 56 reasons why one should not vote for the BJP in 2019. The title seems to be inspired by Netflix’s wildly popular series ’13 reasons why’. 13 has been substituted with 56 which is a possible reference to PM Modi’s ’56 inch ka seena’( seena is a Hindi word for “chest” ). The opinionated list is certifiably not an academic investigation, however, an insane resemblance of falsehoods, misleading statements, and creations. In any case, this is a free nation and everybody is allowed to express his/her conclusion.
Now, my cousin Abhishek Katoch, who studies and lives in Canada tagged me in that post. He’s a hardcore BJP (Bhartiya Janta Party is the ruling party in India) opposer and a Modi critic as well. I happen to support BJP and prime minister Mr. Narendra Modi. So as a response to that post, I have made my own list of 56 Reason why India should vote for BJP in 2019.
Disclaimer: I have tried to keep all my points up to mark, and I’ve researched various statistics and data on the internet and only included them in my post if they came from reliable sources. I’ve provided links to the trusted articles published on unbiased media houses like Huffington Post, BBC, Firstpost, Financial Express, Times of India and government agency stats of India as well as Switzerland to support my arguments. I’m trying to spread awareness, and hence the post holds its relevance.
So why don’t you grab a cup of tea/coffee before we get started!!!
1) GST: One nation one tax rate
The launch of a new nationwide Goods and Services Tax (GST) in July transformed India’s 29 states into one market with one tax rate. Some critics will not agree with me but hey, this happens to be the best policy of Modi Government. This is going to help Indian economy in a long run. GST would subsume with a single comprehensive tax, bringing it all under a single umbrella, eliminating the cascading effect of taxes on the production and distribution prices of goods and services.
GST offers benefits to the government, the industry, as well as the citizens of India. The price of goods and services is expected to reduce under the new reform, while the economy will receive a healthy boost. It is also expected to make Indian products and services internationally competitive.
2. Jan Dhan Yojna
Jan Dhan Yojana propelled by PM Modi has prompted in excess of 30 crore individuals joining the banking system, in excess of 18 crores of the said accounts have been opened in rustic/semi-urban zones meaning it has prevailed in its objective of profiting the last individual. It is the biggest financial inclusion initiative in the world.
3. Indian Economy on a boom
We are the fastest growing economy in the world and are expected to retain the position for the whole next decade. Thanks to all the economic reforms made by BJP led NDA government.
4. Smart Move to not lower the fuel prices
The smart move to not lower the fuel prices helped our government retain the fastest economy in the world. This helped the Indian economy at a time when countries like Russia, Taiwan, and Brazil are facing recession while China’s growth is at a 25-year low. You can read more about it here on Huffington post
5. Make in India
Make in India is like a seed which is going to give our country as it will reap in the future. Total FDI equity inflows rose 35% to $45.9bn (3,02,940 Crores INR) in the span of 13 months till December 2015. According to India’s Department for Industrial Policy and Promotion (DIPP) investments in the automobile industry were up by 45% to $3.5bn, compared with $2.4bn a year earlier. It is creating jobs at a very fast pace.
6. Ujjwala Yojana
Ujjwala Yojana is another project which aimed to help the economically weaker section of the society. More than 5 crore beneficiaries have been provided with LPG connection under this scheme. Many middles, as well as upper-middle-class families, left their subsidies to support this scheme.
7. Swatch Bharat Abhiyan( Clean India movement)
Swacch Bharat or Clean India which promoted clean streets and strived to make India open defecation free by providing toilets for every household is another project which has been highly successful. Over six crore toilets were built in rural areas.
8. Digital India
Top CEOs from India and abroad committed to invest ₹224.5 lakh crore (US$3.1 trillion) towards this initiative. … Oracle plans to invest in 20 states and will work on payments and Smart city initiatives. Digital India is building a digital infrastructure for delivering citizen services. The infrastructure is open and companies are encouraged to use it. Depending on the nature of their business, companies can benefit from one or more digital India services.
9. AADHAR
Aadhaar program was launched with the main objective to provide universal identity to every Indian resident. People can now get the card with much ease as its acceptance as a mandatory document for various initiatives has been officially made. All government services and benefits can directly be availed using AADHAR and Jan Dhan bank account hence removing intermediaries and reducing corruption.
10. Beti Bachao Beti Padhao Yojana( Protect and Educate Girl Child)
Looking at the brighter side the scheme actually worked and sex ratio has gone up from 856 to 957 in Cuddalore in Tamil Nadu, in Mansa, Punjab it has increased from 857 to 925. There has been an increasing trend in sex ratio at birth in a total of 104 districts. But sadly, India is a populous country and women are still not safe here. Let us hope for the best in the coming future.
11. Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana( Permanent residence scheme)
With the mission of “Housing for All”, Government of India started the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana (PMAY). This aims to provide houses for all citizens of India until 2022.NDA government approved central aid of Rs 21,337 crore for this scheme. Read more about it
here.
12. The Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana( Crop insurance for farmers)
This is a government-backed insurance scheme which gives farmers, options to insure their crops on their own with the government subsidizing the premium, this has helped lakhs of farmers across India in various states.
13. Demonetisation
Some people argue that demonetization was actually a failure of Modi government but still it has helped the government to track black money which was kept hidden by tax evaders and demonetization has helped it uncover the huge amount of unaccounted cash. It also promoted cashless India and helped to increase taxpaying community in India. You might argue that majority of currency which was banned came back into bank accounts, isn’t it? But this ultimately helped the government to track down the corruptionist and the work is still going. Read more about it here.
14. Tax revenue
Tax collection is the important revenue stream for any government. With robust tax revenues, a government can implement welfare programmes and infrastructure projects that benefit people. During the four years of the NDA government, the average gross tax revenue stood at Rs 15.91 lakh crore per year, as against Rs 8.36 lakh crore during UPA II and Rs 4.35 lakh crore during the first four years of UPA I.
15. FDI inflows
Foreign direct investment (FDI) poured into the country under the NDA regime. During the four years of the Modi government, the country received a record average $52.2 billion in FDI annually, as compared to $38.4 billion under UPA II and $18.2 billion under UPA I. The various reforms initiated by the Modi government have been rewarded by record FDI inflows.
16. Surgical Strike
Surgical strikes conducted on Pakistani soil by the Indian Army was a bold move which proved that PM Modi led central government has dealt with Pakistan in the right way. India had faced countless attacks from Pakistan during the Congress era, a surgical strike by the Indian Army which had the backing of the central government was necessary. This gave a strong message that India is serious and strict about its defense policies
17. Reduced terrorist attacks.
Apart from Pathankot attack which was on a military base the strong policies and full support for decision making given to the military, there has been no major terrorist attack on civilian cities in India. Although there have been attacks on borders with Pakistan in Kashmir taking away lives of many military personals and civilians too.
A perusal of the data by the Ministry of Home Affairs shows that there were as many as 19 incidents of terrorist attacks in the hinterlands between 2009 and 2014. While four such attacks took place from 2015—Gurdaspur (2015), Kokrajhar attacks in 2016 and Bhopal-Ujjain passenger train bombing and Amarnath yatra attack in 2017.
18. Surgical Strike in Myanmar
Another surgical strike by the Indian Army happened in Myanmar where the Indian soldiers attacked the rebel groups by crossing Myanmar border. It sent a message that India was no longer going to take orders with folded hands but was ready to fight back.
19. Modernisation of Indian Army
The Indian Army has been modernized and provided with better arms and ammunition, important objects such as bulletproof jackets. The country’s defense budget rose by 5.89 percent to $46.16 billion, against $43.59 billion in the previous year.
20. Per Capita GDP increased drastically
The per capita GDP rose significantly under the current NDA regime. It averaged out at Rs 91,153 at factor cost and Rs 1,12,556 at current market prices. It was almost half those amounts under both the UPA II and UPA I regimes.
21. Lower Inflation
Modi government has successfully achieved a lower inflation rate hence the price of goods are in control. The average CPI inflation stood at 3.58 percent in FY18 which lowest in the past decade.
22. RERA
Housing was one of the major problems in the country. The sector was largely unregulated and was an avenue to turn black money into white. Property prices in Indian cities were comparable to that of London and New York due to this. RERA is gradually improving the real estate sector and housing has become affordable since the last two or three years.
23. Ease of Doing Business
The monetary changes by Modi government enhanced the simplicity of working together positioning of the nation to in excess of 30 positions over the most recent four years. The simplicity of working together is a vital marker utilized by remote speculators and organizations to choose whether to enter into a nation to work together or not.
24. Shell firms crackdown
This move is going to help curb ‘only-on-paper’ firms which are used for malicious activities and money laundering. Read more about it here on financial express.
25. The National Register of Citizens draft in Assam
Another achievement of the NDA, the NRC aims to weed out the illegal Bangladeshi immigrants from the state. NRC draft had been promised by the UPA but was never carried out by them. It took PM Modi to give the go-ahead to the draft.
26. Expenditure on Education
The expenditure on education during the UPA government was Rs. 65,867 crore, which has increased to Rs. 79,868 crore in the regime of NDA in 2017-18.
During UPA government’s regime (2013-14) the numbers of total universities in the country were 723 which have increased to 799 in the NDA regime (2016-17), which means during NDA regime 76 new universities have been established.
27. Health Sector
In the year 2013-14, the UPA government used to spend just 1.2% of GDP on wellbeing, which has been expanded to 1.4% out of 2016-17. The NDA Government has made an arrangement of Rs. 48,878 crore for the wellbeing part for the year 2017-18, which was Rs. 37,330 crore in the year 2013-14.
The present government has pronounced another National Health Policy in 2017 under which it means to expand the normal age from 67.5 years to 70 years by 2025, with an objective of 2.5% of GDP on social insurance.
28. Industrial Development
Modi government performed better than UPA 2 in industrial as well as service sector and was par in the agricultural department.
29. Reduced Railway accidents
Railway accidents have been at an all-time low and the efficiency with which railways function has drastically improved. Read more about it here
30. Manning of railway crossing and track renewal
“There are 27,181 level crossings in India of which 19,480 are manned and 7,701 are unmanned. Planning has been made to eliminate unmanned level crossings along broad gauge tracks by 2020,” the official said.
The allocation of fund for track renewal has been almost doubled from the last five years average of Rs 5,548 crore to Rs 9,961 crore in the Budget Estimate of 2017-18.
31. Clean Railway stations, clean drinking water, and high-speed wi-fi.
Go and have a look at your city’s railway station. You’ll find that platforms are now being kept clean and you’ll find water stations with clean water. High- speed wi-fi is always a delight.
32. Catering at IRCTC
India Railways catering has seen a big improvement, and action is taken if the food served to passengers on-board is not up to the mark.
33. Mass Electrification
The massive electrification drive started by PM Modi has made electricity available to all villages of India, 100% electrification of India is not just a dream anymore but is now a reality which is benefiting the last person in the Indian society.
34. Startup India
Startup India is an initiative of the Government of India.
The campaign was first announced by Indian Prime Minister, Narendra Modi during his 15 August 2015 address from the Red Fort, in New Delhi. The action plan of this initiative is based on the following three pillars:
- Simplification and Handholding.
- Funding Support and Incentives.
- Industry-Academia Partnership and Incubation.
35. Highway construction
When it comes to construction of national highways, the Modi government has built 28,531 km of national highways in its four years since 2014-15, which is 73 percent more against the 16,505 km achieved by the Manmohan Singh government in four years till 2013-14. The rate of highway construction touched almost 27 km per day in the period of April to June this year, as against 25 km per day in the same period last year. Read the full story here.
36. Triple Talaq bill
The bill will help Muslim women. Read more about it here
37. Air connectivity
Air connectivity has improved a lot mainly because of UDAAN scheme. According to the data, Indian airlines carried more than 12 crore passengers in the fiscal year 2017-18 against 6.1 crore passengers in the fiscal year of 2013-14. The compound annual growth rate (CAGR) in the number of passengers is a whopping 19 percent. Under the Regional Connectivity Scheme (RCS) launched in April 2017, the government is working to make air travel affordable and increase the connectivity in tier two and tier three cities of the country. As many as 43 cities are expected to get regular connectivity under this new scheme and a dozen airports where limited but irregular flights operate will be connected
38. Eastern Peripheral Expressway
Completed in a record time of about 500 days against the scheduled target of 910 days and it is also a fully access-controlled six-lane expressway. This project has generated employment opportunities of about 50 lakh man-days.
39. Relations with Israel
Narendra Modi became the first PM of India to visit Israel where he made many key agreements in the areas of defense, agriculture, technology, and also by-passed Ramallah. The visit is said as “historic” in India- Israel relations.
40. Khelo India
Heavy campaigning and funding for promoting sports in India. The result is our good performance in Asian Games 2018. Read more about it on firstpost here
41. Sushma Swaraj’s good foreign policy
Exemplary Social media presence of Ministry of External Affairs. Just one tweet and the ministry is there to help out the Indians who are in distress at any place on the globe.
42. India and Canada
Canada has always been our ally but their prime minister Justin Trudeau who’s believed to be a Khalistani sympathizer was given a royal snub by prime minister Modi which gave a global message that India will not compromise when it comes to its security and indigenousness.
43. A strong stance on Naxalism
Incidents of left-wing extremism have declined by 60% from 2,258 in 2009 to 908 in 2017. Casualties among security forces have declined by 53-55%. The geographical expanse of LWE-affected areas has also decreased by 40-45%. Read more about it here
44. Transparent E- coal auctions
The Narendra Modi government deserves credit for moving on a war footing to clean up the Coalgate mess with the successful e-auction of mines and taking the initiative to revive the country’s energy sector with quick decision-making, replacing the policy paralysis of the erstwhile UPA government.
Figures released by Coal Secretary Anil Swarup show that the proceeds from the sale of 32 mines in the coal block e-auctions have crossed Rs 2 lakh crore.
45. No Corruption at Central level
No major scam came into light in Modi government’s 4-year tenure, which indicates that the government was successful in providing a corruption-free government at least at the central level. Nonetheless, corruption is still a major problem at lower tier of the system. But unlike UPA’s government, no major scam came into the picture. Guys are honest and transparent, that’s a general reputation.
46. Direct transfer of subsidies
Direct transfer of subsidies has also succeeded in hacking away at the corruption which existed in the country. The subsidies are finally reaching the people they were meant for rather than filling the pockets of some government official.
47. Delhi-Meerut Expressway
Delhi-Meerut Expressway, stretching from Nizamuddin Bridge to Delhi UP Border completed in record time of 18 months at a cost of about Rs 841.50 crore. It includes a 6-lane Expressway and 4+4 Service lanes, i.e. 14-lane facility from Nizamuddin Bridge in Delhi to UP Border. This is the first National Highway in the country with 14 lanes.
48. Smart Cities
Government plans to upgrade and build 100 new smart cities across India which will have world-class infrastructure and smart ways of generating power and transportation. Although the work is still in progress and there are some hurdles which needed to be resolved to get it moving quickly.
49. Bullet Trains
The country’s first bullet train is likely to start running between Mumbai and Ahmedabad by the end of 2022. The 508-km, high-speed train corridor is being built with Japanese assistance. This work has already started and you can get more lead on this here
50. Reduced black money in Swiss bank
Indian money in Swiss banks has come down by 80 percent under Modi Government contrary to media reports of it increasing by 50 percent. You can read the Swiss government’s original statistics here
51. What about the black money in 100 days?
Well, this question too has an answer. India and Switzerland inked the pact for implementation of AEOI last November. Now the exchange of information should start anywhere from 2019. Read it here
52. Relations with the US
Modi helped strengthened US-India relationship- PM Modi invited Barack Obama to be the Chief Guest at India’s Republic Day parade in January 2015. The new American president Donald Trump continued to improve ties with India and has also heavily cut down on the amount of aid offered to Pakistan by the USA.
53. Operation Rahat
Operation Raahat was an operation of the Indian Armed Forces to evacuate Indian citizens and foreign nationals from Yemen during the 2015 military intervention by Saudi Arabia and its allies in that country during the Yemeni Crisis. The evacuation by sea started on 1 April 2015 from Aden port.
54. Skill India
Under this scheme over 30%, skilled workers got jobs and the trend increased from over 3.5 lakh people in FY17 to nearly 16 lakh people in FY18.
55. Modi is popular around the world
Modi was recently ranked 3rd most popular leader in the whole world. Read about it here
56. Modi still popular at home
A recent survey said that 57% of people who voted for Modi in 2014 are satisfied with his work and he is still the most popular candidate for PM for elections next year. Here’s the survey.
Thank you for the read and do share this post with more people.
-Abhishek Pathania.
Images: Google, Pinterest
Aphorism with Abhishek 