The irony was palpable in Modi’s recent address in Telangana, where he claimed that Ambani and Adani had lavished funds upon the Congress, revealing a stark twist in political alliances.

MUCH HAS ALREADY been said and written about Indian Prime Minister Modi’s policy of religious polarization of Indian society, inciting and spreading hatred against the Muslim minority, and ‘saffronization’ of Indian state and educational institutions, all with the aim of getting Hindu votes. So one need not labor any more on it.

What needs to be considered now is Modi’s economic policies. Did they benefit or harm India?

I submit that they benefited only a handful of big businessmen who became richer but did great harm to the Indian masses, who became poorer.

Modi evidently believes in the ‘trickle-down’ theory in economics (though he has probably never even heard of it). This theory says that the government should only benefit big businessmen, not the poor directly, by giving various benefits, tax rebates, and other concessions, deregulation, etc., to the former.

By getting these benefits, the big businessmen will earn more profits, which they will invest in setting up factories and businesses, which will provide employment to the poor, and thus indirectly the poor will also benefit. Also, the rich will have more money to spend, which will increase demand, which will also indirectly benefit the poor.

In fact, this is a heartless theory of heartless people, and I have pointed out its flaws in the article.

Far from the creation of millions of jobs as envisaged by the slogan ‘Vikas’ (because of which the Indian youth voted en masse for Modi in the 2014 Lok Sabha elections thinking they will all get jobs), the latest economic figures reveal that far from Vikas, the Indian economy is largely stagnant or even in recession, particularly the manufacturing sector.

12 million youth are entering the job market in India every year, but the number of jobs being created annually in the organized sector of the economy is only about 500,000. Where will the rest go? Become street vendors, hawkers, stringers, bouncers, criminals, beggars, or suicides?

A lot of claims have been made that during Modi’s rule the Indian economy and India’s GDP have grown a lot. Such claims are laughable, as explained here.

Moreover, even assuming there was GDP growth, the question to be asked is who has got the fruits of such growth, a handful of big businessmen, or the Indian masses? Under Modi’s rule, a few Indian billionaires have become richer while the poor have become poorer.

Three facts are enough to demonstrate what calamity has been caused by Modi’s rule.

(1) Child malnutrition has increased, every second Indian child being malnourished, stunted, and/or wasted. India, which was at position number 101 of the 125 countries surveyed, has slipped 6 positions in a few years of Modi’s rule to position number 107, according to the Global Hunger Index, an internationally renowned agency studying hunger in the world, its situation becoming worse than neighboring countries like Pakistan, Bangladesh, Nepal, and Sri Lanka.

(2) Unemployment has reached record heights under Modi’s rule. If a single post of chaprasi (peon) is advertised by the government, often there are thousands of applications, some applicants holding Ph.D., MA, M.Sc., or engineering degrees, all begging for a chaprasi’s job.

(3) Prices of even essential commodities like food, fuel, and medicines have skyrocketed in India. Are these signs of economic progress? From all accounts, Modi’s economic policies have been a dismal failure and a calamity for India. The economic situation of India can improve only if the economy is rapidly expanding, not by stunts like Yoga Day, Swachhata Abhiyan (cleanliness drive), cow protection, or building a Ram Mandir in Ayodhya.

It was somewhat amusing to hear Modi’s recent speech in Telangana saying that Ambani and Adani have given stacks of money to the Congress. Modi had all these years been close to Ambani and Adani, so one may wonder at his sudden change of tune and ‘baukhalahat’.

The reason is obvious. Ambani and Adani are businessmen, and businessmen have no permanent loyalty to anyone or anything except their own business interests.

It seems Ambani and Adani have sniffed the change in the direction of the political wind in India and apprehend there may be a possibility that after the results of the ongoing parliamentary elections are declared on 4th June, Modi’s government may be replaced by a Rahul Gandhi-led coalition government.

Hence they have started giving a lot of money to Congress, of which Modi must have got information from his intelligence agencies.

Businessmen always like to keep on the right side of the government to get various benefits, and also because if the government becomes hostile to them it may harass them by income tax notices, ED, and CBI investigations, and myriad other ways. So, businessmen keep their eggs in several baskets, giving money to both the ruling party and the opposition because the opposition may come to power in the future.

The Indian media too, which till now has been vehemently pro-Modi (which was why it was called the ‘godi media’) is also likely to change its tune after 4th June. This is because the Indian media is largely owned and controlled by businessmen, and businessmen change their stance with the change of government, for the reasons mentioned above.

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