Welfare Of Masses
By Dhurjati Mukherjee
It’s now election time in Jharkhand and Maharashtra to woo the electorate. The contest is going to be close and tough. Warring sides are making every effort to reach out to the marginalised communities and poorer sections, in both rural and urban areas. Freebies and schemes come into play. Sadly, the promises and concerns raised at rallies don’t change the perspective – but for the elections, prevailing socio-economic conditions are not a concern for political parties.
For the elections in tribal-dominated Jharkhand, the Union Cabinet in mid-September approved the Pradhan Mantri Janjatiya Unnat Gram Abhiyan. This would include saturation coverage for them in tribal-majority villages and would cover 63,000 villages, benefitting over five crore tribals, as announced earlier in Budget 2024-25. This scheme has a total outlay of over Rs 79,000 crore comprising of a central share of Rs 56,333 crore and state share of Rs 22,823 crore. With a ST population of 10.45 crore as per the 2011 census and over 705 tribal communities living in backward and remote areas, economists believe the central share may not be adequate with some states being unable to provide fully their share.
The Abhiyan comprises 23 interventions, which will be implemented by 17 ministries in next five years to achieve targets such as identifying and enhancing ST households to access pucca housing under the PMAY (Gramin) with availability of tapped water and electricity. Moreover, the rural development ministry has a target of building 20 lakh houses and 25,000 km roads that connect with ST majority villages. Like every other plan, though the Abhiyan looks quite encouraging, it’s doubtful amount of the funds would be used judiciously.
But it remains a fact that tribals have been at the receiving end, whether in Jharkhand or Chhattisgarh. The BJP is going all out to unseat the JMM-Congress alliance by echoing its national development programmes. Its five key points in its manifesto include financial aid of Rs 2,100 to women per month, five lakh jobs to youths, housing for all, LPG gas cylinders at Rs 500 etc, if voted to power. However, Chief Minister Hemant Soren’s performance has been steady as he has shown concern for rights of tribals such as land and other marginalised communities and resisted BJP’s Hindutva driven pro-corporate policies.
BJP has been trying to capitalise on dissatisfaction with JMM’s handling of local issues. But the ruling dispensation has been wedded to the problems of tribals and is trying to restore their land rights. There is sharp focus on social justice, cultural preservation and extending welfare schemes to the poorer sections. However, corruption remains a big problem in the state.
Maharashtra’s problems are somewhat different: unemployment, rural stagnation and growing disparity between richer western parts and its poor eastern counterpart. Though ruling-Eknath Shinde government has been on a giving spree, such as Ladki Bahin Yojana with 35 lakh women receiving payments, there are concerns regarding an increased debt burden of the state. Its freebies include the Mukhyamantri Majhi Ladki Bahin Yojana scheme with a monthly payment of Rs 1,500 to eligible women aged between 21 and 60 as well as 3 free LPG cylinders and free electricity for agriculture pumps up to 7.5 horse power capacity that would benefit 4.4 million farmers.
Analysts opine that the electorate has little faith on the ruling combine as together it’s not able to resolve problems easily. The BJP being desperate to retain Maharashtra has been silent to the antics of its partners but wants to have its own nominee as Chief Minister.
While in Jharkhand the tribals will have the final say, in Maharashtra the middle-class Marathas would decide which combination would come to power. In the latter, there is dominance of the business class, but little has yet been done for the lower segments of society. There is stagnation in rural districts despite high per capita income of the state.
Unfortunately, big ideas of socio-economic transformation of an egalitarian society, establishment of a just economic system etc, are consequently reduced to election politics. The poll process has been transformed into a political marketplace to address voters as mere consumers. Thus, electoral packages have evolved to attract voters though promises made may not be implemented. The intellectual class has virtually no role in this matter. Though there’s lot of talk, social change hardly comes by and the same policies favouring the upper echelons of society are followed. This favours the bureaucrats who mostly come from this privileged class and are hardly bothered about the need for equality in society.
Political vision has been reduced to a ‘social myth’, a symbolic and utopian view of the future that can galvanise the masses behind a political force. In today’s politics, though some parties may have a laid-out vision, they are far from practising it.
The core question is whether political parties have the right vision to undertake such strategies that would benefit the people, not indiscriminate spending to lure voters. The concerns of the underprivileged are well-known as political leaders talk about these quite frequently but in implementing programmes, those that benefit the upper echelons are mostly given priority.
Take for example, Vande Bharat trains that are being launched with much fanfare. Though faster trains are, no doubt, needed, the fare structure is beyond the means of the common man, even the low middle-income sections and the low-income groups. It is surprising why modern coaches in express trains are not being launched, why running time is reduced and why airports and not railway stations are being modernised.
These shouldn’t and can’t be priorities when recurrent floods, coastal erosions and the likes are not being handled properly because of which lakhs of people are rendered homeless and suffer unimaginable losses, impinging on their very existence. Interventions are far from satisfactory and there would be no statistics available as to the amount of money disbursed to those rendered homeless due to floods and coastal erosion.
The big question is whether political vision is lacking or whether country’s leaders are actors who come out with big visions but are not genuinely interested to engage with the impoverished and backward sections. Ideology and vision have been sacrificed by our political leaders. Whatever be the outcome of the elections, not much must be expected to change as the economic gap will persist to widen. The future is not as promising as being made out by the parties vying to retain power or to gain it. Real development for the masses needs constant looking after, not just when the election bugle is sounded. — INFA