Smarting under the worst ever debacle faced by the party in the recent general election held to the Legislative Assembly, the BJP in Kerala has launched a diatribe against Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union Home Minister Amit Shah.
In a scathing attack on the duo, BJP’s mouthpiece Janmabhumi has blamed the Demonetisation, the GST , the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA), and the Agricultural Reforms Act which were implemented because of the brutal majority enjoyed by the party in Parliament.
In an edit page article, authored by the newspaper’s regular consultant Dr Mary George, an economist critical of the BJP Government at the Centre, the impact of demonetization has been described as analogous to a speeding car coming to a crashing halt when the fuel tank becomes empty. The article has quoted the economic survey 2019 saying that the unemployment crossed the 26 per cent mark because of demonetization.
The Goods And Services Tax , though a right decision was implemented without any advance preparation and this resulted in economic recession and dip in revenue income.
The article says that while the first term of Narendra Modi as Prime Minister was uneventful because the Government did not have majority of its own in Rajya Sabha, the second term saw anti-national and anti-people laws getting enacted as legislations. “The three Agricultural Reforms Bill legislated in September 2020 has broken the backbone of farmers as well as the agricultural sector. These laws were enacted by the Government despite the words of caution rendered by farm economy experts like Ramesh Chand and Ashok Gulati who are members of the NITI-Aayog,” says the author.
She has alleged that the duo were bowled over by the power, position and presents they would get from the Government by supporting the Agricultural Reforms Bill rather than supporting the farmers and their distress. “The image of Narendra Modi has taken up a beating from the status he had enjoyed as a winner and global leader,” writes Mary George.
The author has concluded the article with a warning to Prime Minister Modi that instead of digging up the history to ascertain the roots of people who have been staying in the country for more than thousand years, the Government should find out the reasons for their poverty, sufferings and illiteracy and enact laws to raise the standard of their lives.
M Radhakrishnan, managing director, Janmabhumi, said the article whch appeared in the June 2 edition of the daily was not properly edited. “We had asked her to write a positive report but this observation was unexpected. An article countering her charges was published in June 4,” Radhakrishnan told The Pioneer. But the response authored by Utharan ( a nom de plume) to the article by Mary George fails in all respect to counter her assessments.
Speaking to The Pioneer, Prof George said she had told the editors when they asked her to write the article that she would write only facts, positive as well as negative. The reply to Prof George’s article which was carried in the June 4 edition of Janmabhumi has been titled “Criticism Should be Honest” has not addressed the points highlighted by her.
Prof George while analyzing the Kerala Budget presented by Finance Minister K N Balagopal has lambasted the Modi government again in the Janmabhumi dated June 5. “The health policy announced by the Centre in 2017 stated that in the 2021-22 budget, the States should set apart eight per cent of the Gross State Domestic Production to health sector while the Centre would allocate three percent of the GDP for the same. The Centre as well as the State has given this directive a silent burial,” writes Prof George in her analysis.