The Congress has been running a high-decibel campaign in Karnataka—and rightfully so — it is a matter of prestige for the party to win the election. Its party chief, Mallikarjun Kharge, is a Kannadiga and historically, Karnataka elects alternate governments. So, if history is the only indication, the Congress should wrest power from the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). It is a separate matter that the historical trends have been shattered multiple times under Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
However, let us for a moment consider that the Congress may return to power — what happens next? During the last stint of the Congress government in Karnataka, the FDI annual inflow was about Rs 30,000 crore. This investment saw a three-fold increase to Rs 90,000 crore under the current BJP regime. Clearly, the BJP government put Karnataka on an accelerated path of development with its double-engine government and attuned policies. In order to sustain this type of growth, the BJP government also created a network of infrastructure projects which further led to a significant increase in the need for manpower, skilled and unskilled.
If the Congress returns to power, what happens to these businesses which have invested in the state due to their confidence in the BJP’s double-engine government? One hopes the Congress returning to power doesn’t spook businesses and force them to move out to other states where there is greater ease of doing business.
Now, let’s discuss welfare schemes. A Congress prime minister in the past has confessed that for every rupee which is sent to the people during their regime, a whopping 85 percent is pocketed by middlemen. Little seems to have changed over the years. This leaves measly remnant funds for the welfare of the needy people of Karnataka.
The irony of the Congress manifesto for Karnataka is that while it is called ‘Sarva Janangada Thota’ which translates to ‘peaceful garden of communities’, on-ground, it is a proposal to further inequalities, creating divisions between religious groups and communities. They propose to increase reservations for Muslims and STs by four percent each, and for SCs by another three percent—overall bringing up the total reservation to 75 percent by increasing reservations for other communities. They have also proposed to set up ‘social harmony panels’ at panchayats. There are multiple problems with this. The first and most important problem is that the Constitution of India does not allow for religion-based reservations. But then again, when has the Congress been a torchbearer of upholding the Constitution?
The second issue is that considering all of the above in context with their other intentions such as appeasement of terror organisations like the banned PFI and banning the Bajrang Dal which works for social causes in the name of Hindu God Bajrang Bali, the Congress leadership will actively work to submerge the majority community in Karnataka. In the name of ‘social harmony’, Hindus will likely be the community taking the brickbats, living in fear, as a result of Congress’ policies of empowering radical elements.
Historically, the Congress has appeased the Muslims — but little do they know that even the Indian Muslims are now looking at a path of development versus lip service and radicalisation. In the past several elections, it has become clear that there are many minority pockets where Prime Minister Modi enjoys Muslim votes, especially votes from Muslim women due to the penetration of the government schemes trickling down to them—without any communal discrimination. The BJP has vowed to bring in the Uniform Civil Code to further this empowerment of minorities and bring them into the mainstream developmental agenda of the country.
The Congress often criticises the BJP for not focusing on local issues like inflation. However, it was indeed during Indira Gandhi’s tenure that the inflation of independent India was at its highest at 34.7 percent. This was not a one-off phenomenon. Even in Manmohan Singh’s second term during the UPA government, the inflation remained in double-digits, breaking the backs of businessmen and common Indians. We have already discussed how corruption is rampant in the Congress ecosystem of gobbling up 85 percent of the funds meant for the poor. In order to keep their coffers full, during the UPA term, they had invented 10 crore ‘non-existent’ people and enlisted them as beneficiaries of various government schemes. Since those people did not exist in the first place, all that money went to the Congress loot. With the direct digital payment systems brought in by the Modi government, this scope of financial leakage has practically become zero. There may be a very real but scary possibility of the Congress scrapping the use of Direct Benefit Payments of the state schemes in order to keep their treasuries full if it comes to power in the state.
The Congress needs to understand that new India has moved on from its colonial subservient mentality of remaining underdeveloped. It is now fixated on only one thing — growth — that too, fast-paced, unstoppable growth. Without any real policy solutions offered by the Congress towards fulfilling these dreams, the party will find itself on the back foot, despite anti-incumbency hitting the current BJP government in the state. The Congress needs to change before it’s too late.
The writer is a policy and communications strategist. A Nation to Protect: Leading India Through the Covid Crisis is her third book. The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not represent the stand of this publication.
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