Liberation takes a brief look at what four years of Modi Raj have meant for India’s people, and how it has affected key areas of economy and society.
Farmers Betrayed
What Modi promised
- MSP (Minimum Support Price) of crops incorporating 50 per cent profit over and above farmers’ cost of production (‘C2’ – i.e including seed, irrigation, manure, labour as recommended by Swaminathan Commission) (election speech 2014)
- Doubling farmers’ incomes by 2022 (election speech 2014)
- Farm loan waivers in UP (election speech Feb 2017)
What His Government Did
- Introduced Ordinance diluting The Right to Fair Compensation and Transparency in Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Resettlement Act, 2013. Even after the Government was forced to roll this back, State Governments have introduced other means of corporate land grab
- Demonetisation starved farmers of ready cash during rabi sowing and kharif marketing season
- Shooting farmers dead in Mandsaur when they asked Modi to keep his promise on ensuring Minimum Support Price of “50% above C2”
- Budget announcement of MSP – not of “50% above total production costs i.e C2” but calculated on the much lower level of “A2+FL”, also no allocation even for this
- Farcical “loan waivers’ in UP, with farmers getting as low as Re 1 waivers
- Madhya Pradesh Government’s Bhavantar Bhugtan Yojana (promising to pay difference between MSP and the mandi price) imposes conditionalities that deny most farmers any benefit, and in fact resulted in further depressing process. Garlic prices for farmers in Mandsaur have fallen from Rs 20 per kg to Re 1 per kg
- Monsanto’s sold genetically modified Bt-Cotton seeds claiming they were pest resistant – but Bt-Cotton crops have been devastated by pests this year (2018). Yet, the Modi Government has rejected the demand from Maharashtra and other states to de-notify Bt-cotton.
- The overall area insured under crop-insurance schemes has decreased over the last 2 years (from 53.7 million hectare in 2015-16 and 57.2 million hectare in 2016-17 to 47.5 million hectare in 2017-18)
- The Modi Government’s 2016 Manual for Drought Management excludes all but the most severe drought for relief funds from the Centre under the National Disaster Response Fund (NDRF), passing the buck to State Governments for the rest. So the Central Government effectively washes its hands off drought relief, especially relief for chronic, recurrent drought. The India Meteorological Department (IMD) expunged the word drought from its vocabulary, claiming the term was not “scientifically precise”!
Unsurpassed Callousness
- Union Agriculture Minister Radha Mohan Singh on 8 June 2017, asked about ongoing farmers’ protests and Mandsaur firing, declared, ‘Do Yoga’ (Yoga kijiye)
- Union Urban Development Minister Venkaiah Naidu on 23 June 2017: ‘For farmers, seeking loan waivers has become a fashion.’
- Haryana Agriculture Minister OP Dhankar on 29 April 2015: Farmers who commit suicide are ‘cowards’ and ‘criminals’.
- Union Agriculture Minister Radha Mohan Singh in Parliament in July 2015: “Impotency and love affairs are the top reasons behind farmers' suicides”
- MP Home Minister Bhupendra Singh in a written reply to a question by Congress MLA Shailendra Patel in the MP assembly in July 2016: “Farmers committed suicide because they were possessed by ghosts.”
Corruption - Both Corporate and Political
One of Modi’s biggest election planks was his claim that he would fight and eradicate corruption and bring back black money. In fact, his Government has enabled and participated in some of the worst corruption scandals in India’s history.
- Corruption - Both Corporate and PoliticalModi won power highlighting the UPA Government’s 2G spectrum allocation scam. Since then, the CBI under Modi failed to prove its case in court against the UPA-era Minister and others accused in the 2G scam.
- Further, the Modi Government is now doing exactly what A Raja did in the UPA regime – allocate ‘E’ and ‘V’ bands of spectrum on a first-come-first-serve basis to certain companies instead of auctioning it as mandated by the 2012 Supreme Court order in the 2G case!
- Similarly, instead of auctioning mining leases to miners the BJP Government in Goa instead simply renewed leases of miners who had been accused of mining scams!
- Vijay Mallya who had been declared a wilful defaulter who owed crores to Indian banks, was allowed to flee the country. Nirav Modi also fled after having defrauded the Punjab National Bank of crores.
- The amount that wilful defaulters like Mallya, Modi and Vikram Kothari of Rotomac owe Indian banks is more than 1.5 times the central government’s allocation for agriculture and farmer welfare (Rs 35,984 crore) in Union Budget 2016-17, according to an IndiaSpend analysis of data gathered by Credit Information Bureau (India) Ltd (CIBIL)
- Shirdi Industries – a company of which Modi Government Minister Piyush Goyal had been a director of till 2010 and in which he and his wife still retain substantial shares, defaulted on loans worth hundreds of crores of rupees in 2014
- In a blatant case of conflict of interest and crony capitalism, Modi’s Minister of state of power, coal and new and renewable energy Piyush Goyal sold the entire stock of a company he and his wife owned, at nearly 1000 times the face value, to a group firm owned by Ajay Piramal – a billionaire with substantial interests in the infrastructure sector including power. Goyal failed to declare this transaction in the mandatory statement of assets and liabilities that he made as a Minister to the PMO in 2014 and 2015.
- A company owned by BJP President Amit Shah’s son Jay Shah increased its turnover 16,000 times over in the year following the election of Modi as PM
- The BJP has inducted Sukh Ram, the convict in the 1990s telecom scam, and former TMC Minister Mukul Roy who is facing a CBI inquiry in the Saradha chit fund scam, into its party. BJP leader Sudhanshu Trivedi justified such inductions saying ‘Jo beet gayi wo baat gayi’ (What’s bygone is bygone)
- In Karnataka, the BJP chose the mining scam-tainted Yeddyurappa as its chief-ministerial candidate and fielded the mining barons – Reddy brothers – as candidates. The whole country was witness to naked dance of corruption and bribery – with audio tapes surfacing that showed Yeddyurappa, Janardan Reddy and other prominent leaders trying to bribe MLAs to defect, promising crores of rupees as well as impunity in corruption cases!
- The crores of money offered by Reddy brothers to MLAs proves that the BJP leaders and the corrupt still have plenty of black money!
"Unemployed India" -- No 'Skill India', 'Start-Up India', 'Make In India' Or 'New India'
Modi came to power promising to create 2 crore new jobs per year. Instead, his Government has destroyed jobs, sold jobs through corruption, and mocked the unemployed by advising them to sell pakoras, even as his Government makes life for small vendors and pakoda sellers far more difficult!
- According to statistics released by the Government Labour Bureau 52 lakh jobs were terminated between 2013-14 and 2015-16. This is the first time after Independence that there has been a drop in the total number of jobs. (EPW, 23 September 2017)
- Between 2013 and 2015 there has been an 89% cut in Central Government jobs—this was stated by a Minister in the Government inside the Lok Sabha. (29 March 2017, Indian Express)
- Recruitment in all sectors has been at a standstill for years—railways, banks, clerical jobs, teachers in schools and colleges. Exams which should have taken place 3 to 4 years ago are still pending and even in cases where exams have been conducted, results and joining are pending. An entire generation has been made to just sit and wait endlessly. When during the waiting period scams or court cases come, then the whole recruitment process comes to a stop
- Massive cuts and irregularities are also going on in officer-level jobs. This year's advertisement shows that a huge 40% cut in UPSC jobs, from 1,291 seats in 2014 to 1,291 in 2018! Recruitments to State level Public Service Commissions have not taken place for several years now.
- Lakhs of appointments to several posts in the Railways, considered the largest job-generating sector, had been pending for 4 years. When the forms did come out after 4 years, the age limit was reduced, the exam fees were raised, and the exam pattern was changed, thus attempting to deprive a large section of this opportunity. It was only after strong protests by us students and youth that these changes were rolled back.
- On the one hand vacancies for posts were kept unfilled; on the other, the Central Government has recently announced that all posts lying vacant for 5 years will be scrapped. Thus the government has revealed its dangerous objective of ending lakhs of jobs at one go. If the posts themselves are scrapped there will be no question of them remaining vacant!
- The government is giving loan waivers to the tune of lakhs of crores to private companies in the name of generating employment. But the private companies show no commitment to generate jobs. On the one hand 60% engineering graduates remain unemployed, while on the other hand lakhs of employees are being laid off and are losing their jobs in the IT sector.
- Self-Employment - the Govt’s Hollow Claims: After systematic curtailment of regular and salaried jobs, the government is now terming various means of survival adopted by people out of compulsion as ‘employment generation’! And thus the rhetoric of ‘self-employment’ is now being touted. Many leaders like PM Modi, Amit Shah and Piyush Goyal are parading the slogan of 'self employment' to fool people. But the crux of the matter is that even earlier people were practicing some form of 'self-employment' as they had no other option. What then was the point of voting in a government in the hope that it would generate 2 crore jobs per year? Moreover, the way in which the government is giving free license to large capital and FDI in all sectors including the retail sector, how will small shopkeepers, street vendors and pakoda sellers survive in the face of this assault? The livelihood of small shopkeepers, street vendors, and pakoda sellers are also being snatched away in the name of ‘smart cities’ and ‘swachhta’ (cleanliness) etc. The government has given permission for even pakodas to be sold at big malls like Reliance and DLF.
- The Reality of ‘Mudra Yojana': The government is making the false announcement that it has given self-employment to 8 crore people under its ‘Mudra Yojana’. What the government is terming ‘generation of 8 crore jobs’ is actually the number of loans (8 crore loans) under the Mudra Yojana. Of this number 93% are such loans whose average amount is Rs 23,000. (Newslaundry, 21 September 2017). Now the question is, what kind of ‘self-employment’ can be generated in today’s date with such a small amount, leave alone giving employment to others?
- The Reality of 'Skill India': Under the much hyped Skill India scheme, only 0.19% of the total 4.50 lakh youth registered in 2014-15 could get employment in different sectors.
- 'Start-Up India'- Employment Scheme or Shutdown Scheme? A total of 800 Start-Ups were running between January and September 2017. This number was 6,000 in the same time period of 2016. The remaining have all shut down.
- The condition of Employment Exchange offices is so bad that only 0.57% of those registered in these offices have obtained employment through this institution. (26 July 2017, Indian Express report)
Education Under Attack
- Government schools – on which children from the poorest and most oppressed communities rely - are being systematically destroyed so that students can be forced to opt for private schools. A recent NITI Aayog report recommending private takeover of government schools between 2017-2019 (Manish Anand, ‘Government schools to take private route: Niti Aayog’, New Indian Express, May 7, 2017)
- In higher education, Fund cuts, fee hike, seat cut, withdrawal of fellowships, slashing of social justice and reservation provisions among teachers and students, and privatisation disguised as ‘autonomy’ have become the new normal. In 2018 – 19, the share of the Human Resource Development (HRD) Ministry budget in the total union budget is the lowest in the last five years. From 6.15% share of total central budget in 2014 - 15, the HRD Ministry’s allocation has pathetically dropped to 3.48% this year (Fact Checker, February 1, 2018).
- Partisan appointments of Vice-Chancellors whose only qualification is RSS membership, saffronisation of syllabi, and muzzling of campus democracy have been witnessed on campus after campus in Modi rule – claiming the life of Ambedkarite activist and scholar Rohith Vemula and victimising students on dozens of other campuses. JNU students were booked for sedition in 2016 and victimised - two years later, the police is yet to provide any evidence or file a chargesheet, indicating that the attack on JNU was a pre-planned conspiracy using fake videos to malign the student movement.
- Saffronisation and peddling idiotic saffron myths as ‘education’ is being pushed right from the top, with the PM and CMs talking of internet and test-tube babies in times of the Mahabharata. BHU students are taught the “benefits of demonetization” and how the “characters in Ramayana had used surgical strikes to defeat enemies”. They were also asked to write about the nature of GST in Kautilya’s Arthashastra and Manu as the first Indian thinker of globalization in examinations! A diary and planner printed by Vadodara’s Maharaja Sayajirao University (MSU) administration absurdly credited sages from ancient India for their “contribution to science” — from “developing nuclear technology” to “discovering rockets and aeroplanes”! Such nonsense is affecting the quality of education Indian students receive and making us the laughing stock of the world.
Worst-Ever Attack On Women's Autonomy, Safety, And Rights
Modi won votes with the slogan “‘Bahut hua naari par vaar, ab ki baar Modi Sarkaar.” (Enough of violence against women, this time ensure a Modi Government) What has been the Government’s track record on women’s rights?
- Less than 30 percent of the Nirbhaya Fund has been utilised
- The Beti Bachao campaign has been a failure - the Government, responding to a query in Parliament, said that according to the Sample Registration System (SRS), the average sex ratio in India declined from 906 female births per 1,000 male births in 2012-14 to 898 in 2014-16.
- In January 2018, the Ministry of Women and Child admitted that only 96,000 women were able to avail of the PMMVY (the Pradhan Mantri Matru Vandana Yojana - maternity entitlements scheme) during 2017 - while 2.6 crore live births take place every year in India! In the 2018 Budget, the Modi Government further slashed the inadequate allocation for PMMVY by Rs 300 crore.
- The Modi Government has also slashed allocations for the ICDS (Integrated Child Development Servifes – i.e Anganwadi) scheme which is responsible for food, education, and healthcare for infants and children, and maternity entitlements for women. In its first full budget the Modi Government cut the budget from Rs.18108 crores (2014-15) to Rs.8400 crores (2015-16). Later, the government was forced to increase it slightly due to struggles by Anganwadi workers and helpers. In 2018, the allocation for ICDS was Rs.16,334.88 crore – a marginal increase over the 2017 allocation of Rs. 15,425.19 crore. This allocation is not even enough to cover the increased cost norms for the supplementary nutrition declared by the Ministry of Women & Child Development in September 2017, which requires an additional expenditure of Rs.10000 crore in ICDS for three years.
- Workers in many Government schemes – ASHA, Anganwadi, Mid-day Meal, SSA, NRLM, MNREGA, the majority of whom are women, are denied recognition as workers by the Government which employs them, and are paid a nominal ‘honorarium’ - which is far less than even the minimum wage! Women workers in these schemes often remain unpaid – often because the Central Government does not send its share of the budget for this purpose.
- Under the Ujjwala Yojana that Modi touts as freeing women from polluting wood fires, poor women got LPG cylinders but they can't afford gas refills – so the rate of increase in the use of gas cylinders is now lower than it was before the scheme was introduced. Open Defence of Rapists and Perpetrators of Violence By BJP Governments
Open Defence of Rapists and Perpetrators of Violence By BJP Governments
- In the Asaram and Ram Rahim rape cases and the Vikas Barala stalking case, BJP leaders including MPs and MLAs and party office bearers defended the accused and blamed the victims
- In the Kathua case, BJP Ministers and MLAs participated in rallies defending the accused. Even after two Minister stepped down, another BJP MLA who had participated in the rally was made a J&K Minister
- In Unnao, the BJP Government of UP protected the rape-accused BJP MLA Kuldeep Singh Sengar and killed the complainant’s father after arresting him in a false case
- Sewa Bharti, Vidya Bharati and Rashtra Sevika Samiti, affiliated to the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), trafficked 31 tribal girls from Assam to Gujarat and Punjab in June 2015 to “initiate them into Hinduism” and turn them into RSS cadre. The Modi Government took no action against the accused
- Students of BHU, JNU, DU, Jadavpur protesting sexual harassment have faced violence at the hands of police and/or sexist victim-blaming by senior BJP leaders. In JNU, a professor who is a Sangh member, was accused by eight women students of sexual harassment but still roams scot free
The introduction of death penalty for rape of minors is nothing but a draconian measure to take attention away from the fact that the Government has been protecting not punishing rapists who are close to the BJP’s ideology.
Attacks On Women’s Freedoms
The Sangh Parivar, with the approval of the Modi Government, has unleashed countrywide, organised violence against inter-faith relationships which they brand as ‘love jehad’ - an abusive term that combines patriarchy with Islamophobia.
This propaganda legitimises and encourages ‘honour’ crimes and killings. The Cobrapost sting revealed that Sangh and BJP leaders, as part of this campaign, indulge in abduction, beatings, and even drugging of women to force them to give up their Muslim partners.
Adityanath (Ajay Singh Bisht, who styles himself ‘Yogi Adityanath’) was handpicked by Modi, Amit Shah and the RSS to become the Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh – India’s largest state. In a detailed write up titled ‘Matrashakti — Bharatiya Shakti ke Sandarbh Mein’ which was uploaded in 2014 on his own website, Adityanath echoed the Manusmriti to write that according to Hindu scriptures, “women are not capable of being left free or independent…women need male protection from birth to death… a woman is protected in her childhood by her father, by her husband in her youth and by her son in her old age.” This idea of women being under a man’s protection all her life (father, husband, and son) is straight from the Manusmriti.
The Mirage of 'Vikas' (Development)
The collapse of the under-construction flyover in Varanasi, the city that is Modi’s own constituency and which he promised to turn into Kyoto if elected an MP from there is a metaphor for ‘vikas’ (development) in Modi Raj. 18 people lost their lives due to the flyover collapse.
The deaths of children in the Gorakhpur hospital because the Government ignored repeated reminders to pay the oxygen company its dues are another example of what Modi’s promises of ‘vikas’ in India and BJP-ruled states has amounted to.
The Modi model like its Gujarat prototype, consists of callous disregard for basic needs and safety of people, compensated for by false claims, fake images, manipulation of statistics and taking credit for the achievements of previous Governments.
Electrification
- The Modi Government claimed to have electrified every Indian village, through the Pradhan Mantri Sahaj Bijli Har Ghar Yojana or ‘Saubhagya’ scheme, which was not a new scheme but a rehash of older schemes. The truth? In 44 years between 1947-1991, 10,934 villages were electrified every year on an average; between 2014-18, this average was 4346 villages per year. (source: commentator Ravi Nair on Twitter, more details in his article ‘How Modi's Saubhagya Yojana Simply Repackaged an Already-Repackaged Scheme, Wire.in, September 2017)
- In May 2017, Power Minister Piyush Goyal claimed that all households would have electricity by May 2018. He lied. Electrification of the villages does not mean electrification of homes or even power availability. There are still 31 million Indian households without electricity. “In states like Uttar Pradesh, Jharkhand and Assam, fewer than 60% of households have electricity, four years after the BJP came to power on the promise of “electricity for all”. In 12 out of the 30 states, fewer than 80% of the households have been electrified.” (Wire.in)
Toilets
- The Modi Government claims that 83.87% households in India have constructed toilets under the Swacch Bharat scheme. That is false Only 54.51% households have toilets.
- Further, many households that have built toilets cannot use them because of lack of water. Many ground reports from different parts of the country show this.
- The Centre For Science and Environment found on a recent visit to Bihar and Uttar Pradesh, that “toilet construction in Ganga floodplains is marred by design flaws... twin-pit toilets have been created with pit depth going beyond 5 to 6 metres at several places, which may lead to groundwater pollution....Also, as these areas get waterlogged and flooded during intense rainfall, there is a chance of overflowing of excreta and wastewater in open. Also, in most of the places that CSE visited, it found hand pumps located close to toilets. Since groundwater level in these areas is shallow, the chances of groundwater getting contaminated with seepage from soak pit are maximised.”
- Deaths due to manual scavenging abound in Modi Raj’s ‘Smart Cities’
Clean Ganga
Modi declared in 2014 that “Mujhe Maa Ganga ne bulaya hai (I have been called here by Mother Ganga).” He announced the Namami Gange (I salute Ganga) mission. But four years later, all the Mission has to show is some huge religious ceremonies featuring Modi.
- Only 20% of Clean Ganga Mission funds have been spent till March 2018
- In 2017, Delhi-based Centre for Science and Environment (CSE) visited 10 towns and cities across five states—Uttarakhand, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Jharkhand and West Bengal—located along the Ganga and found that Swacch Bharat notwithstanding, there was no emphasis on managing faecal sludge. In fact it is the toilets constructed under the Swacch Mission that create the faecal sludge that the Government is not bothered to treat
What The Modi Government Achieved
Highest-ever Petrol and Diesel Prices
In US an average American spends only 0.5% of daily per capita income to buy 1 litre of Petrol. In India the prices of petrol are, quite unreasonably, among highest in the world. Escalating prices of international crude oil are not as much of a factor as the Government's own high rate of indirect taxation levied on fuel. The Modi Government raised excise duty on petro products nine times between November 2014 and January 2016. Every now and then, this Government raises excise duty to make the ordinary citizen bear the burden of NPAs and defaulting CEOs' plunder of Indian economy!
When the prices of international crude oil fell in 2016, Modi called himself the PM who brought India good luck. But still, the consumer never got the benefit of low prices: international crude oil prices dropped by 54.6% (in 2016), but in India petrol prices were slashed by only 18.3%.
In 2014 when crude oil was priced at $109.41, the petrol price in Mumbai was Rs. 80.89; In 2018 when crude oil prices are still $30 less than the 2014 level, petrol in Mumbai is being sold at above Rs. 84.
Now under Modi Sarkar an average Indian has to spend 20% of her daily income to buy 1 litre of Petrol. Petro products have been turned into world's highest taxed commodity by Modi government. This, in a country where high fuel prices are bound to push up the prices of food and other necessaries, is shameful.
Aadhaar-Based Exclusion and Deaths
In spite of evidence of Aadhaar being a tool of corporate and state-sponsored mining of private data, and of exclusion of the poor from their entitlements, the Modi Government has repeatedly lied in Court to defend Aadhaar, even asserting that citizens do not have any sovereign rights over their own bodies. Ever since Aadhaar was imposed as a condition to access rations, pensions etc there have been many deaths of extremely poor women, children and elderly people dying after being denied their benefits due to Aadhaar failures.
A ‘State of Aadhaar 2017-18’ report produced by Idinsight for Omidyar Network, a multinational research organisation that is known to have close links to Modi Minister Jayant Shah, is being cited as proof of the widespread acceptance of Aadhaar. Ironically even this report admits that over 20 lakh people from 3 states have been denied PDS rations due to Aadhaar failures.
The report also admits that there is no credible evidence or data to back the Government's claims that Rs 83,000 crore has been saved in four years because of Aadhaar, direct benefit transfer (DBT), digitisation, etc through deletion of fake, duplicate, or ineligible accounts. It appears that like other claims by Modi, these numbers are simply fake, pulled out of the air at random.
The report also disproves the claim made by the Government in Court that privacy was an elitist concern – it found that more than 96% of respondents (including most low-income respondents) in the three surveyed states cared about how the Government used their data. The report also cites another report (Privacy on the Line 2017) prepared by Dalberg, CGAP, and Dvara Research, which found that "low-income individuals" were "highly protective" of their personal information, including their Aadhaar numbers.
Splurging On Advertisement
The Modi Government has spent more than any previous Government has on publicity. Compensating for its lack of performance by tweaking perceptions through an advertisement blitz, the Modi Government has spent over Rs 4,300 crore on publicity in four years. To put this in perspective, let us recall that the erstwhile UPA regime spent a total of Rs 2658.24 crore in 10 years (two terms) on publicity. We do not know if this expenditure covers payment of the troll armies who spread fake news and abuse online – that is, we do not know if people’s taxes are used to fund fake news and death/rape threats by trolls followed by Modi online.
Hate Speech and Attacks on Press Freedom
VIP Hate speech is certainly one area where the Modi Government is Number One. A study by NDTV found that under the Modi Government, VIP hate speech – hateful and divisive language (the study excluded sexist remarks about women) skyrocketed by 500%. 90% of hateful comments made during the NDA's current terms are by BJP politicians. Moreover, the BJP promoted politicians for hate speech, making serial offender Adityanath the UP CM and another serial hater Anant Kumar Hegde a central Minister.
Such hate speech accompanied by violence against dissenting voices has marred India’s reputation in the world. India ranked 138 in 180 nations in the Reporters Sans Frontières (Reporters Without Borders) Press Freedom Index. The report noted: “Any investigative reporting that annoys the ruling party or any criticism of Hindutva, an ideology that blends Hindu nationalism with an almost fascistic rhetoric, elicits a torrent of online insults and calls for the death of the reporter or writer responsible, most of it coming from the prime minister’s troll army. This unbridled verbal violence serves to support a leader who asserts himself as a strongman, a leader whose authority does not tolerate being undermined by reporters or editorialists.”
Every-day Violence against Dalits and Minorities
There has been a spectacular increase in organized political violence against Dalits and minorities (Muslims particularly, as well as Christians).
Lynching of Dalits, lynching of Muslims, violence against Kashmiris at the hands of State forces in the Valley and non-state mobs all over India, murder of Dalit activists and protesters, and arrests of Dalit leaders like Bhim Army leaders who challenge the anti-Dalit violence, are now commonplace.
There is a steady stream of VIP hate speech justifying such violence, and attacking India’s Constitution.
Mainstream media and Whatsapp are both used to create a fertile climate for such violence.
The Modi Government, failing on all other counts and facing people’s anger, seeks to divide people using communal and casteist hate, in a desperate bid to retain/regain support. For Modi, hate and violence are the last hope to secure a victory in 2019.
We, the people, face the challenge of defeating the hate, ensuring that unity triumphs over divisive violence and prejudice, and exposing the Modi Government’s lies and betrayals.