- Details
-
Created on Tuesday, 22 January 2019 04:39
-
Hits: 3652
(Image Courtesy: Census Commissioner)
When amending the Constitution within 48 hours is likened to hitting a six in slog overs of cricket match, electorate becomes spectators of political games.
You need not know the cricket’s nuances to watch a live match. Similarly, one need not bother about whether the constitutional procedures have been hit for a six to create a slippery lollipop.
You also need not ponder much over rare political consensus on Modi Government’s maiden sixer in slog overs - the 10% percent reservation for economically weaker sections/economically backward classes (EWS/EBCs).
It is a symbol of populism for which all parties compete. Mind you, reservation is an emotive issue for queues-tired public. Many citizens die waiting for their turn for some welfare sop or the other. Opposing a quota bill means risking loss of a potential vote bank. The unstated political logic is: If voters can be taken for a ride, so be it.
Even as spectators await more sixes promised by Law Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad, let them utilize strategic time-out on a serious note. They should understand that the first sixer won’t alleviate the miseries of EWS. It is nothing but a grand illusion.
Read more: Govt Should Hit 3 Policy Sixers in Same Way as 10% Quota Bill
- Details
-
Created on Monday, 13 August 2018 07:36
-
Hits: 4022
(Edited Image Courtesy: Uttrakhand's Directorate of Training & Employment)
“Let us assume the reservation is given. But there are no jobs. Because in banks, the jobs have shrunk because of IT. The government recruitment is frozen”.
Union Minister of Road Transport Nitin Gadkari recently admitted this bitter truth while commenting on Marathas’ agitation for jobs reservation.
Mr. Gadkari has thus touched soul of crores of unemployed & under-employed persons across India. His statement would also strike the right cords with countless people who work below Government-notified minimum wages.
The picture one thus gets is of “angst” to borrow a word from Rajasthan Chief Minister,Vasundhara Raje.
The other day she told a TV news channel: “Lynchings are a result of inability to find jobs”. She observed angst is spreading everywhere, and people are reacting angrily to their circumstances.
Apart from big guns within BJP empathizing with the jobless youth, others within and outside the Government are also chipping in their concern.
Last month, Swami Ramdev stated: “Unemployment is a big question in the country and the Centre and the state governments are not able to do much as they were supposed to solve this issue”.
Swami Ramdev, who last year conferred Prime Minister Narendra Modi with title of RashtraRishi, has obviously failed to convince the latter.
No wonder Mr. Modi went hammer and tongs against those who see joblessness. Replying to no-confidence motion in Lok Sabha against his Government on 20th July 2018, PM reeled off dubious statistics & guesstimates to claim that one crore jobs have been created in one year.
Read more: Where Are The Jobs?
- Details
-
Created on Tuesday, 18 July 2017 15:06
-
Hits: 4621
“7.28 crore youth self-employed under MUDRA loan scheme -that is title of mythological serial beginning today. Scriptwriters may apply”, tweeted ex-Finance Minister P. Chidambaram on 13th July 2017.
He was ridiculing BJP President, Amit Shah’s claim that 7.28 crore people have become self-employed under Pradhan Mantri Mudra Yojana (PMMY) launched in April 2015. Mr. Shah has indeed pulled a rabbit out of his hat. Why his claim is fictitious would become clear later with a quote from an official report.
Ironically, Mr. Shah had last month flaunted a bigger figure on the same matter. He stated: “As many as 7.64 crore youth have got employment through Mudra bank. The loan amount that is disbursed by the bank varies from Rs 10,000 to Rs 10 lakh. These people turned from job seekers to job-generators”.
Textiles Minister Smriti Irani was perhaps the first one to dish out Mudra-linked job statistics. She told a TV channel in May this year that “Over Rs 7 crore people have been given loan under Prime Minister MUDRA Mission. The loans have been given for entrepreneurship and the loans are being paid back. But those people have now been self-employed and probably have given jobs to others too”.
Read more: Modi Govt Shouldn’t Thump Chest With Conjured or Dubious Data
- Details
-
Created on Wednesday, 16 December 2015 15:14
-
Hits: 5925
(Right to Wait for Jobs! Image Courtesy: jharkhandemployment.nic.in)
“Can you imagine any liberty being enjoyed by a citizen who goes about hungry for want of employment, who is haunted by the fear that his family would be without food as he has not got work?”
“Have we made any provision for such an individual? Can such a man have any interest in the administration except to blow it up? Unless material insecurity is eliminated, personal freedoms are paper safeguards and worth nothing.”
That was Sardar Hukam Singh putting soul-stirring questions at Constituent Assembly (CA) on 21st November 1949. He was debating draft constitution prepared by a committee headed by Dr. B.R.Ambedkar. Mr Singh and a few other CA members unsuccessfully pitched for inclusion of right to work (RTW) in the charter of fundamental rights of citizens.
RTW & other vital issues raised at CA are more valid today as Kal-Chakra (eternal cycle) of population explosion, unemployment, poverty, crime and environmental degradation is deepening its scars on the country.
It is indeed sad that these five inter-connected issues don’t figure in the #IntoleranceDebate engineered by pseudo-intellectuals and other vested interests.
Alas, Parliament too virtually avoided these issues during the two-day discussion beginning 26th November 2015 on ‘commitment to India’s Constitution as part of 125th birth anniversary celebration of Dr. B.R. Ambedkar.’ Prime Minister, Narendra Modi, who thankfully participated in the discussion, frittered away a golden chance to put RTW on the national agenda. He should have pitched for requisite constitutional amendment to shift RTW from Directive Principles of State Policy (DPSP) to Fundamental Rights in the Constitution.
If Mr. Modi acts on this political challenge, he would be completing the task left unfinished by one of his predecessors, V.P. Singh. Except for Singh’s National Front Government, all ruling political alliances have got overawed by RTW.
Read more: Right to Work means Right to Wait for jobs in India
