By Dr. Gyan Pathak
Though RSS-BJP clan has wonderful track record of convincing people on their deceptive and false narratives, such as they convinced many of Ganesa drinking milk while actually going down the drain, they seem losing confidence on this skill this time, which is more than obvious in their two-fold parallel electoral strategy: First, pushing spectacular performance narrative under PM Narendra Modi in the last 10 years; and Secondly, raising the pitch for their communal Hindutva agenda as a fall back and their only hope.
As it has emerged on the election eve 2024, Ayodhya, Kashi, and Mathura will remain at the core of BJP’s communal Hindutva political agenda while taking refuge in religious Hinduism, as a means of deception to be played on electorate. PM Modi himself talked of heralding Ram Rajya for 1000 years, while a Maharashtra BJP leader has termed Modi as the 11th incarnation of the Hindu god Vishnu. It should be noted that Ram of Ayodhya was the 7th incarnation of Vishnu, and Krishna of Mathura was the 8th. RSS-BJP clan had also tried to project PM Narendra Modi as embodiment of Ram during the Ram Temple inauguration event in Ayodhya on January 22, 2024. The clan’s deception and falsehood seemed having no limit.
The performance narrative under the last ten years rule of PM Narendra Modi is also not less deceptive and false. PM Modi himself has said that the world is in praise of his government’s wonderful performance and looking forward to India. He said that India was ranked 5th biggest economy of the world, and the country would become 3rd biggest in his third term, and a developed country in Amrit Kaal by 2047. This ranking forms the core of the performance narrative under Modi rule.
It would be of great help to know how actually world ranks India under PM Modi? Deceptive fastest growing country tag with the 5th biggest economy, conceals many facts including the one that World Bank describes India as lower middle income country. Due to low earning, working poverty is very high. World Bank says over 97 crore people can’t afford even healthy food, while 80 crore people are dependent for foodgrain on PM Garib Kalyan Ann Yojna. Despite PM Modi’s claim of pulling 25 crore people out of poverty, the number of poor remained the same since introduction of Food Security Act in 2013.
India houses largest number of poor in the world. This is how India is ranked by the world. Deception in the performance narrative is obvious, since the World Bank had said in 2022 that India needs about one decade to become even an upper middle income country. It makes the narrative of Modi’s “Vikasit Bharat” (Developed India) guarantee farfetched, especially in the backdrop of rising inequality within the country under his rule, though wealth creation is also a fact, but for handful of entities, such as 20 companies bagging 60 per cent of wealth generated and 70 per cent of earning of the entire country.
When even PM Modi is talking about India’s ranking in growth and economy, it will not make any harm to anyone to know key rankings of our country on various areas of interest, and it would not be an anti-national activity as the government has been alleging certain individual Indian political leaders of maligning Modi rule abroad.
India has been one of the least happy nations in the world, even less-happier than Nepal, China, Bangladesh, and Sri Lanka. The World Happiness Report by UN-SDSN ranked India 136 out of 146 nations it studied in 2022. One of the chief reasons was failure of governance and performance of the government.
In Human Development Index (HDI) , the UNDP ranked India 132 out of 191 countries in 2021-22. In inequality-adjusted HDI, the UNDP put India at108thin 2022 report out of 156 nations. In Social Progress Index by Social Progress Imperative, India ranked 110 out of 169 countries in the world on the basis of the data published in 2022.
Where-to-be-born Index 2024ranks India among those countries where taking birth is least desirable by the people on account of miseries people are likely to suffer. India’s score was only 5.67 out of 10 ranking 15th from the bottom out of 80 countries. The Economist Intelligence Unit ranks the countries on several criteria including life expectancy, political freedom, divorce rate, gender inequality, corruption in government, homicide rate, unemployment rate and climate.
In Legatum Prosperity Index 2024 by Legatum, India ranked 103 out of 167 countries it studied. It is a very bad commentary on PM Modi’s narrative that India is prospering at an unprecedented pace under his leadership.
In Global Youth Development Index released in 2021 by the Commonwealth (London), India was ranked 122 out of 181 countries it assessed. In Global Gender Gap Report, 2023 by World Economic Forum India ranked 127 out of 146 countries. UNDP report has also exposed India’s gender bias crisis and ranked India 122 in 2023 out of 191 countries in the world. It is also a sad commentary on PM Modi’s and RSS-BJP’s empowering “Nari Shakti” narrative. A UN study has found in 2023 that India is among 10 countries in the world that make up 60 per cent of global maternal deaths, still births, and new born deaths.
India also figures in Global Slavery Index by Walk Free Foundation. In its report released in May 2023, India topped in the list of the countries of the world with incidence of 11 million in modern slavery, with prevalence rate of 8 per 1000 people and rate of vulnerability 56 per cent.
In Global Peace Index 2023, by Vision Humanity, India ranked 126 out of 163 countries it studied. India was ranked 126 in life expectancy among 201 countries in 2023. In Global Hunger Index 2023, the country ranked 111 out of total 125 countries assessed. In Per Capital Health Expenditure India ranked 77 out of 188 countries in 2022. WHO 2016 data put India at 170th out of 188 countries in government health expenditure, which is still at very low, which was only 2.1 per cent of GDP in 2022-23. World Bank’s Human Capital Index India ranked 116th out of 180 nations.
As for India’s economic growth is concerned, India’s ranking in Per Capita GDP nominal was 148th in 2023 out of 189 countries and Per capita GDP (PPP) rank was 140th out of 187 countries that year. Public debt ranking in 2021 was 82nd out of 189 countries, and in minimum wages it ranked 64th out of 156 countries in 2021. GNI (PPP) per capita rank in 2021 was 124th out of 179 countries. As for employment rate, our country ranked 42nd out of 47 countries for which data were available for 2020. Economic Index Forum ranked India 131stin 2023 out of 177 countries it assessed.
Transparency International’s Corruption Perception Index released just a few days ago in January 2024, ranks India 93 out of 180 countries for the year 2023. India scored only 39 and dropped from 85th position in 2022. This shows that India has a serious corruption problem despite PM Modi’s narrative that he has been taking big actions to eliminate corruption in the country.
In World Press Freedom Index 2023, India ranked 161st among 180 countries in the world, a great fall from 150th rank in 2022. It indicates that freedom of speech is being increasingly stifled in the country. In the Rule of Law Index 2022 by World Justice Project, India was ranked poorly at 77th out of 140 countries.
India ranked 108thout of 202 countries in the Electoral Democracy Index of the V-Dem Democracy Report 2023, a fall from 100th in 2022. It shows a fast fall for electoral democracy in the country under PM Narendra Modi who has been harping on India’s being mother of democracy. EIU (Economist Intelligence Unit) had put India in 2023 on the 53rd spot and also classified the country as a ‘flawed democracy’.
There are many more that expose the falsehood and deception of RSS-BJP’s narrative of spectacular performance under PM Narendra Modi. It has to be seen how people and INDIA block react to such a narrative, on which will depend the outcome of Lok Sabha election 2024. (IPA Service)
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