Achievment or Failure

Two years of NDA rule

by Vivek Prasad

It has been two years since the NDA Government has been at the helm of affairs, and it it quite natural that dissection of the rule is done to know where India is standing right now and where it is headed to in the coming decades. We will delve into the various parameters of the country to come to a proper assessment of the Government in the past 2 years.

Dealing with Obsolete Laws

In the past 2 years the NDA government has repealed around 1159 archaic laws which according to many have been great impediments in the progress of the country and has stalled a large number of development works in the nation.

Centre-State relations

The NDA Government had to face some opposition fire in this field owing to the Arunachal Pradesh fiasco and the misadventure in Uttarakhand, where democratically elected governments were toppled with not so direct means, The prolonged presidents rule in Delhi in the initial stages of the NDA rule also did not go well with the Indian political system.

Price Rise and Inflation

Price Rise has been one area where the NDA government has been found wanting as the many of the prices of pulses, fruits and vegetables have been on the higher side leading to higher inflation cutting a hole in the common man’s pocket, prices with relation to education, housing health care has also been rising.
The establishment of NITI Aayog in place of the moribund Planning Commission is expected to cut down the prices.
Surge pricing of the Indian Railways has also led to the escalation of the Railways fares putting the common traveler into a quagmire of troubles.

Women Welfare and Empowerment

The much promised 33 per cent reservation for women in the parliament and the state assemblies has still not been achieved thus hampering women’s empowerment in the country, schemes such as the ‘Beti Bachao Beti Padhao’ has made certain inroads into the rural hinterlands of states with skewed sex ratios such as Haryana, Rajasthan etc., the continuation of schemes such as MNREGA etc. has also helped in better empowerment of the women in India.

 Railways

Since the past two years the Indian Railways headed by Suresh Prabhu has been rapidly implementing the high speed corridors across India and in this regard it has granted permission to the Spanish firm Tiago undertake trial runs in the Delhi—Mumbai route, The recent decision of surge pricing has not gone down well with the public, the website of IRCTC used extensively for online reservations is also not very user- friendly thus needing a makeover.

Environment and Ecology

The Ministry of Environment launched an online environmental clearance system which has been well appreciated by the industrial establishment of the country as it has led to the acceleration of the Indian manufacturing sector, projects which were stalled for months together had a breath of fresh air due to this.
But the Ministry drew flak from various quarters for allowing shooting of wild animals such as Nilgiri Tai by terming as vermin.

Black Money

In an effort to curb black money stashed abroad, the NDA government introduced the Black Money and Imposition of Tax Act 2015, the Act provides a one- time compliance opportunity for the citizens to disclose their foreign assets and pay the requisite tax.
The setting up of a special Investigation Team (SIT) in 2014 soon after the NDA rode to power has also rattled many a tax evader.