India is heading towards another General Election scheduled to be conducted before the month of May next year. However, the political parties have started taking their stand and we have seen an indication of the beginning of political game when 16 MPs of Telangana Rashtriya Samithi (TRS) offered resignation to the Lok Sabha speaker on march 3 after accusing Congress president Sonia Gandhi of betraying them.

TRS President K Chandrasekhara Rao termed Congress as villain number one and said Congress would be buried in upcoming Lok Sabha election. It happened for the first time in the history of Independent India that MPs resigned from the House in the Lok Sabha. It was the clear signal of the beginning of just another Indian political gimmick.

Now, the major question is that after almost four years in power, what has the UPA government achieved? The official data is showing booming growth rate but is this a reality on which we Indians should feel proud? The government was feeling good when the Sensex was hitting peaks. No one was there to take care of poor farmers when they were committing suicides in rural India.

UPA ministers were looking in jolly mood when the economy was growing at 9.2% in 2007 without any growth in agricultural productivity. And now, the finance minister p Chidambaram has tried to woo poor farmers just before the Lok Sabha elections by waiving loans of 60,000 crores. It was like Rs 60,000 cr insurance plan for UPA in next General election and the premium of the insurance will be paid by India’s tax payers. Rs 60,000 crore is equal to 50% of the Income Tax revenue of Rs 1,18,000 crores estimated for 2007-08.

After the budget 2008-09, the Sensex is going down and farmers are rejecting the loan waiving idea of the government. It means UPA gets no gain after much-hyped Budget drama.

The issues of disinvestment in sick Public sector Units (PSUs), labour reforms, banking reforms, better implementation of national rural employment schemes have been put on the backburner. Congress party formed the government by defeating NDA by criticizing its ‘India Shining’ poll strategy but after almost four years in office the UPA government has done nothing to reduce the gap between the 300-400 million Indians for whom India is shining and the other 700 million poor people for whom nothing shines except the Sun in day time and the Moon in nights.

The process of mega-projects like the Golden Quadrilateral project and the Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana has gone slow but the process of creating and developing Special Economic Zones (SEZs) has gone up. The government is always looking ready to capture lands of poor villagers in the name of country’s development.

Majority of political pundits in India would agree on the point that the Left wing and its leaders are damaging the progress of the country with their irritating ideas and threats to the stability of the government in center. This is hard luck of Indians that despite having personalities like Manmohan Singh, P Chidambaram and Montek Singh Ahluwalia at the center-stage, country is still struggling to score positive points even after four years in office.

On the question of reservation for OBCs, UPA faced wrath of millions of students across the country. On the front of foreign policy and India’s impact on neighbour countries, India’s relation with Pakistan, Nepal and Bangladesh slipped out of hand. On Indo-US nuclear deal, everyone saw how badly UPA government accepted pressure created by Left parties.

Even the Prime Minister Manmohan Singh avoided talking in clear words and made majority of Indian people confused. Indian bureaucrats were looking like bumbling fools and everyone was silent and busy in saving his place when political parties and intelctaul; class were asking to clarify what is the Hyde Act, 123 Agreement and on what papers Indian delegation signed before leaving Washington DC last year.

The UPA Government would enter its fifth year after 2 months with a record of indifferent policies failing on each and every front. It’s policies on agriculture might be called as the ‘biggest failure’ as farmers’ deaths continued in the country and it resulted in rising prices of essential commodities. It imported wheat at double the cost it paid to farmers in country. The Public Distribution System (PDS) has been collapsed in several states because the government didn’t ensure availability of essential commodities at low price.

The truth behind the growth of Indian economy is that it helped in increase the number of billionaires from 26 to 48 in past five years. India’s growth accounts for the highest growth of billionaires now. It was the main reason why Congress faced defeats in Punjab, Uttarkand, Himachal Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh and Gujarat.

In reality, the UPA government has worked mostly for the benefit of ‘Khaas Aadmi. The ‘Aam Aadmi’ and ‘Aam Aurat’ are in fact facing the impact of sky-rocketing prices of essential commodities. India’s food-grain production has failed to meet the demand to feed its 1.1 billion-population thanks to UPA government and all previous central governments. Now, on the question of nuclear deal with US, Congress may take a risk for political gain in next Lok Sabha election. So, it’s my view UPA is taking last breath, what’s yours’?

Image: Tehelka