“Be the change that you wish to see in the world.”
— Mahatma Gandhi
Elections are usually seasons of extremes.
This election season in India has been unusual — national discourse has touched a new low; opponents are calling each other names; data are being manipulated; social media has made the task of traditional media all the more challenging and demanding.
Jobs, by far, remain the topmost focus area for all. For a country set to benefit from a demographic dividend, to witness a jobless growth is a recipe for disaster. The present government sought to temper the narrative with the ‘job creators not job seekers’ spin. Recent revelations that unemployment may be at a 45-year-high, have, however raised all-round apprehensions and generated a furious debate.
A survey commissioned by BW Businessworld finds that the Narendra Modi government has failed miserably when it comes to jobs.
All this ideally means anti-incumbency, and a high chance for the incumbent government to be voted out during the elections. This, however, is not going to happen, going by the present indications.
The BW-Decode survey, done only last week, comes up with fascinating insights. The post-Pulwama-Balakot nationalist push to the Modi government will ensure that it will come back to power when India votes in April-May this year. While a week is a long time in politics, it appears, however, that things will not change much between now and May end — when the general election results will be announced.
The government furiously contests the claim that it has fared poorly on the jobs front. Read Chief Economic Advisor Krishnamurthy Subramanian’s interview where he cites a CII survey and EPFO numbers to drive home the point that job creation has been robust during the Modi years.
It’s just not jobs. There are other pressing issues, and we thought it was the right time to do a pre-poll survey, and put it on the cover.
So, we did a mood of the nation survey and a Corporate India survey to map the Modi government’s performance. The results are insightful.
To give you an example — notwithstanding the denials by the government, both India and Corporate India think that demonetisation was a disaster.
The two surveys make for a fascinating reading, and you will find a number of your concerns getting reflected in the two surveys.
We also feature the chief economic advisor on the second cover, who, in a way, contests some of the ‘unpopular’ findings of the survey in the interview.
This election is also about doles.
While PM Modi has sought to reach out to the farmers with Rs 6,000 per year PM-Kisan scheme, his rival and Congress president Rahul Gandhi has sought to up the ante by his poor outreach — offering Rs 72,000 a year.
This issue of BW Businessworld comes with all other regular features and columns.
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Happy reading!