By Kewali Kabir, a sophomore and a social, environmental prospector.
( The writer owns the article, content of which is his personal opinion )
PM Narendra Modi during his recent visit to Gujarat sounded the poll bugle for the upcoming Assembly Elections in his home turf and launched BJP’s new election slogan : ‘Aa Gujarat mein banavyu chhe’ (I have made this Gujarat). Invoking Gujarati pride and identity , saying it was the people who had built this state.
Now, the question arises is it that real, are people of Gujarat responsible of living in the Gujarat which is way different than that of what BJP promised.
Of what Gujarat is Narendra Modi talking , the Gujarat BJP claims of and calls as ‘Gujarat Model’ or the actual Gujarat model and the attested conditions the sedentary roots of both urban and rural Gujarat are facing of.
There’s no safeguarding and protection from the government to the deprived classes of India facing injustice in their own land. Where atrocities on Dalits in Gujarat have been rising steadily in the last two decades with the state beholding a 72 percent increase in the number of registered cases between 2003 to 2018. Also , PM Narendra Modi was the CM of Gujarat in 11 of these 15 years (2003 to 2014). In 2018 as many as 1545 cases were registered under the Scheduled Castes (prevention of atrocities) and Tribes Act.
There’s a sharp rise in violence against Dalit women in Gujarat. The stakes of iniquities against dalit women and Tribal women have exacerbated to such an extent that there are cases of rape and murder against them in broad daylight. The elongated shadows of these malfeasances are worst in the districts of state where atrocities are particularly high. And these include Ahemdabad , Rajkot , Junagadh , Banaskanta , Mehsana , Patan , Anand , Gandhinagar , Bhavnagar , Surendranagar and Kutch.
From the atrocities against Dalits , Dalit family getting assaulted for entering the temple to the attacks on dalit marriage processions for grooms riding horses, barbaric attacks and killing of Dalit youths foe keeping moustache have ensured that the political stunts of the events like washing of feet of Dalits may sound spectacular to the media and the fellow citizens but haven’t turn out beneficiary for the Dalits and SC’s.
Inflation which has become the leading notion which may steer the votes in Gujarat this year. From milk to veggies , inflation is pummeling Gujarat hard. Is the Gujarat’s people responsible for this ill?
On inflation , Gujarat is ahead of national average . The Consumer Price Index based retail inflation data released by the Union Ministry of statistics and programme Implementation shows that the annual rate of CPI inflation was 7.95 % in Gujarat , which is slightly higher than the national average of 7.41 percent.
The poor of the country who are also the majority , are facing the brunt of this inflation more than anyone. LPG cylinder , which is a luxury for them ,has alternatives, but food doesn’t .The escalating inflation of food items takes away the purchasing power of the poor or they are forced to cut short their expenses. Also , when the 95% people of the jobless people in Gujarat are educated and the rest over 5% are the semi-literate. Now , it’s up to the reader that how he grasps this malison to them and their Gujarat—as Act of God or Fraud.
This all is in addition to the multitudinous lockdowns , that augured a massive loss of jobs. For a meal , families might have to forfeiture their children’s school, deferring medical tournaments of family members , and give up other disbursements which might not be of much relevance in the present but would turn up as a defacement , if ignored in the long run.
Meanwhile, the Adani the darned example of ‘Gujarat Model’ of the same Gujarat –Despite of the arrant inflation out-ruling the Gujarat has emerged as the second most richest person of the world.
Pothole riddled roads of Gujarat which everyone saw in this Monsoon ; After the incessant rain in Gujarat have exposed the ‘promising’ , ‘double engine sarkar’s’ road development claims. Nevertheless its nowhere from roads , highways to bridges where one could ride with the ensured corroboration of their mere life.
Just a week back, when the whole nation witnessed the Gujarat mourning –the collapsing of the Morbi Bridge , leaving 134 lives dead which became the death trap of the futures of Gujarat – the children , among 135 died the 54 were the children . Wasn’t the ‘double engine Sarkar’ guilty for this subsidence of the bridge , which was opened for the public four days before of the collapse.
One of the most distressing ramification of the ‘Gujarat Model’: The release of eleven hindu men sentenced to life imprisonment on 15th of August , remarked as Independence Day –The 11 barbarians who gang raped a 19 year old , 5 month pregnant Bilkis Bano ; smashed her 3 year old daughter to death. The 14 members of her family were being raped , molested and hacked to death by others in the mob. And what does the release of 11 convicts show , was this to absolve them of their gruesome crimes , to humiliate BIlkis and kill her daughter again and again and again , each time more brutally than the last?
Whatever happening and happened in past few years under the ideological influences of RSS-BJP on the state , sounds more like to be less of people’s rule. India is witnessing the deprivation of ‘equality’ from the nation, India is abducted by economic disparity, social polarization , political centralisation which are threat to the strength of several streams of thought, the numerous aspiration , the disparate cultures which altogether term as the very idea of Indian democracy –the idea India which enshrines in the preamble of our constitution.
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