By Dr. Gyan Pathak
‘White Paper’ is a document containing information about pressing issues before the government explaining their plans before their introduction. It is therefore absurd and ridiculous for a government to issue a white paper, after a delay of 10 years while it slept, at a time when its term is set to expire, brings the document at the last session of the Parliament’s term only two days before its conclusion, just before a country is going to elect a new government.
PM Narendra Modi government did the same thing on February 8, 2024, and washes its hands off any responsibility of getting the white paper discussed in the Parliament of India, on the issues it contains, and on the plans the government intends to introduce to navigate through the predicaments facing the country. This is the worst of tricks played on the electorate of the country, when the term of the Parliament, the government, and even of the Prime Minister is set to expire, and Lok Sabha General Election is to be announced within weeks.
Therefore, it is obvious that the true purpose of a white paper is defeated. Modi government had come to power in 2014, after defeating the UPA government led by the Congress ruling the country since 2004. That was the time when Modi government should have come with a white paper on the state of economy and governance, informing the citizen what his government plans to overcome the pressing issues before the country. But they slept for 10 years, did not inform the citizens and electorate, now have come with the White Paper, with the audacity that how fast their decision and performance in bringing the white paper on election eve. The purpose is therefore not to overcome the predicaments of the people, but to politically confuse the electorate on the election eve. The sanctity of the white paper is reduced to simply a political propaganda.
Nevertheless, Modi government defenced itself and said that despite the “crisis situation”, they “refrained from bringing out a white paper” to avoid a “negative narrative” that would have “shaken the confidence of all.” “Now that we have stabilised the economy and set it on a recovery and growth path, it is necessary to place in the public domain the seemingly insurmountable challenges – left behind as a legacy by the UPA government,” the paper said.
Now let us come to the content that the Modi government’s white paper contains. The degeneration of the purpose of a white paper can simply be seen on the very cursory glance, which emphasises on comparison of the performance of the UPA government (2004-14) and the PM Modi led government (2014-24). This makes the document political, that deviated from the real purpose of a white paper to solve the current problems the people are facing. The document rather focused on the problems the people were facing during 2004-14.
Modi government’s white paper does not inform the people what are the pressing problems before the people and the country, and what are the government plans to deal with them before the elections to the Lok Sabha are announced, that is within a month thereafter the government machinery would be in election mode, and within about 100 days the very term of the government would expire. When the new government comes, it is for the new government to decide how they would plan to resolve the pressing issues faced by the people of India.
The quality of the white paper suffered a great deterioration further when the government just cherrypicked issues that it though appropriate to discredit the work done by the UPA government during 2004-14. The focus was on blackening the face of the Congress and the opposition parties in the UPA. It prompted the Congress to make a statement that “no amount of window dressing, campaigns, gimmicks, or lengthy speeches will not make the reality (under Modi government) disappear.”Hunger, price rise, unemployment and abject poverty are a lived reality for a vast majority of Indians today, Congress leader KC Venugopal has said adding that the white paper is aimed at hiding “the dark truth” under Modi rule of the last 10 years.
Modi government’s white paper for a period 2004-2014, says that Congress-led UPA rule had turned India’s economy into a non-performing one through indiscriminate revenue expenditure, off-budget borrowings and a pile of bad debts at banks. The 59-page document tabled by the government in the Parliament detailed how the Modi government pulled the economy from being counted among the fragile five in the world to the fastest-growing and most attractive investment destination.
White paper has actually wrongly presented the performance under the UPA rule. For example, the white paper boasted India’s average per capita GDP grew roughly from $4,000 in 2014 to $6,000 during Modi’s tenure. While it did not say that annual average per capita GDP growth was 5.9 per cent during UPA rule which tumbled down to merely 3.8 per cent during Modi rule. The distorted presentation can be seen in net foreign investment which was 1.2 per cent of GDP under UPA but only 0.8 per cent under Modi. Similar is the case with foreign reserves which tripled during UPA, while exports growth was 17 per cent of GDP.
s against this exports growth under Modi is merely 14 per cent. Private investment fell from 26 per cent of GDP under UPA to 22 per cent under Modi. Manufacturing growth rose from 15.3 per cent of GVA in 2004 to 17 per cent in 2014 but fell to 14 per cent in the year 2023-24. Foodgrain production grew under UPA rule by 34 per cent but under Modi rule it grew by only 31 per cent. There are numerous such examples. The narrative of the white paper is thus faulty that aims only to praise Modi rule, and unfairly decry UPA rule, by cherry picking data, and not giving the true picture.
The document degenerated in self-praise, while a white paper needs to be focused on pressing current issues (not the issues of the past), and the government’s plans to be introduced to resolve them during their term and concrete planning for the future. Modi government intentionally tabled the document at the fag end of last session of the Lok Sabha before expiry of its term so that it could not be discussed properly due to lack of enough time in the House of the People lest the real political intentions of the government is exposed on the eve of election, though it alleged “misgovernance” and “corruption” under UPA rule. The principle of justice says that Congress had a right to have an opportunity and enough time to defend itself on the same platform where allegations were made, in this case in the Parliament of India.
The timing and manner of presentation of the white paper itself was injustice, which was alleged even by the “Black Paper” of the Congress which was released to highlight the “failures” of the Modi government alleging that its last ten years of rule 2014-24 have been a period of “injustice” and “discrimination”. The 54-page Black Paper highlighted social, economic, and political injustices under Modi rule.
“The Modi government’s 10 years in power have devastated the country’s economy, aggravated unemployment, destroyed the country’s agricultural sector, abetted crimes against women and committed grave injustices against minorities in the country,” alleged the Black Paper. Modi government remained silent on distress of farmers, unemployed, and workforce, and the common people. (IPA Service)
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