A weak Central
government is what India is having now and it is sure that no one would have
second thoughts on this. The Congress and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP),
both major national parties, do not have the required numbers to form a
government in the Centre. They are forced to form a coalition government by
obvious softening of stands. The present UPA II has been slammed from the left, right and centre for
their inefficiency in tackling inflation, corruption and policy paralysis. Only
two major schemes namely the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee
Scheme (MGNREGS) and the Unique Identification Number (UID) were implemented.
The latter one again has raised serious questions about the money involved in
it and the scheme’s effectiveness itself. Major bills like the Lokpal and the
FDI had to be stowed due to lack of support from its own allies. The Centre has
been running from pillar to post for gaining credibility and to sustain the
government at least till the 2014 polls. In this process of tireless running it
often gives in to most of the states’ demands. The demands however are not
small - Punjab, West Bengal, Uttar Pradesh all asking for a moratorium of the
state debts. The Centre is seen heeding to most of them! Are these really
necessary?
Punjab’s SAD’s election manifesto promises included free laptops with data card for children, plots for landless, provident fund for farmers, unemployment allowances, etc. – the implementation of all these costing Rs.10,000crore, this is in addition to the total state expenditure of Rs. 50,883crore. The new annual expenditure thus has increased than the preceding year’s by a whopping 28%, largely due to the rising bills of salary, pension, subsidies, etc. Subsidies alone cost the state Rs.7000crore. Soon after the elections, Prakash Singh Badal did not have second thoughts in appointing 21 Chief Parliamentary Secretaries (CPSs), the highest number appointed ever. Each CPS being allotted an official red beacon car with unlimited fuel, a four bedroom house – whose estimated monthly rent would amount to Rs. 75,000, monthly emoluments worth Rs. 60,000 and an annual out-of-state travel allowance of Rs. 2,00,000. And now he CM asks for a waiver of all small saving loans worth Rs. 22,202crore and a moratorium on repayment of Central loans.
The always unpredictable West Bengal CM Mamta Banerjee too has asked for a bailout of the debt bequeathed by the Left Government, which amounts to just Rs.2.3 lakh crore. Without losing the golden opportunity, the newly elected young CM of Uttar Pradesh too has asked for a bailout of Central loans amounting to Rs. 2 lakh crore.
A weak Centre heeding to all these unreasonable demands is a very sad sight. Hope we get a good, strong, stern and development oriented government at the Centre soon.
