Why should we blame the Indian voters for the current situation?
In a democracy, the voter has the freedom to change his fate every five years by selecting a leader who can best deliver on his or her expectations. As long as the voter exercises his vote in a sound and intelligent manner, all is well. But, what happens when the voter gets swayed by propaganda or refuses to exercise his power of logic and common sense. We end up in a situation like we are in presently - economic and otherwise. The government of 2014 should have given enough information to Indians to make a wise selection but that did not end up happening. Lets look at three big mistakes by the Indian voter:
1) The implementation of GST
Even if the ordinary voter did not understand GST and how it works, he definitely got to know of it whenever he bought any product or service. Suddenly there was a new heading in the invoice stating an added cost component of GST. GST was supposed to rationalize taxes across the value chain and result in lower prices for the end customer. But, rather than that happening, the customer was faced with an added tax at the end of it. Barring very few products, most products ended up being expensive for the end customer.
Business owners too ended up on the losing side, as they had to grapple with enhanced paperwork, business costs and more importantly, frequently changing regulations. Rather than spending time on managing the actual business itself, small businesses especially were spending a lot more time in meeting GST regulations. Not just that, there was a fall in demand for products and services, as almost everything got expensive for the end customer. The business owner therefore had to deal with higher business operation costs and fall in customer demand.
The haphazard management of the whole process was adequate to show the lack of planning and anticipation skills within the government. This single litself destroyed the small and medium business enterprises in the country, which employ the biggest chunk of people. In such a situation, what should have ideally been done by the voter ... he should have chosen a government that has a track record of implementing reforms minus the disruption effect. But, he ended up rewarding the same set of people who destroyed their lives with needless disruption. Now, when the voter does not penalize a government for destroying their lives, they have no business crying or cribbing about the current state of their lives. As you sow, so shall you reap.
2) Demonetization
The second major disruption for the ordinary voter was demonetization. He suddenly found himself in a situation where he had no cash for his personal expenses and even for managing his small business that needed cash for running. With no cash, his personal life as well as business were thrown out of gear. The government kept on changing its goal posts and the gullible voter was taken for a royal ride. The voter bought into all the stupid arguments of the government and still believed that demonetization was done for their benefit and for cleaning the corrupt system that existed. He did not even hold the government responsible or even think of logical questions like:
* How did 99.7% of cash in circulation before demonetization come back to the system? So, all the black money suddenly became white as it came to the banking system?
* Why the government did not anticipate the financial misery for Indians for several months after implentation?
* What was the actual motive behind demonetization? Were these motives achieved?
The small and mediu businesses in India just could not recover from this blow, leading to many people being on the streets. The impact on the farming community was also affected beyond repair.
If the voter does not take into account the impact on his life due to disruptive actions of the government, then what business do they have to complain about the government. If you do not exercise the power in your hand through your vote, then stop complaining about your problems.
3) Agricultural Neglect
The farmer as well as his consumer in the urban markets were equally scammed by the government and both ended up voting for the government again in 2019. The urban voter in India simply pays no heed to agricultural misery. Rural voters have money in hand with a good harvest. Once they make money, they spend on education, buying products like TVs, vehicles etc, buying clothes and other indulgences etc. The companies in urban areas making these products directly benefit from the increased offtake of such products. So, if agriculture is not doing well, it affects all and not just the farmer. But, the urban resident had scant regard for this issue and did not even ask the right questions. Today, when his own life is thrown out of gear, he has to blame himself for being too self-centred and choosing a government that just does not have its priorities in place.
After all, having right priorities needs education, formal work experience ... our PM and many of his ministers have never had a formal job. Have always been party workers ... so, they only do what is good for the party and not for the country.
Even after all this the voter is talking about having Modi as PM for life. If you continue with that thought, we will possibly have only countries like Zimbabwe, Yemen, Syria and Argentina for company.
In a democracy, the voter has the freedom to change his fate every five years by selecting a leader who can best deliver on his or her expectations. As long as the voter exercises his vote in a sound and intelligent manner, all is well. But, what happens when the voter gets swayed by propaganda or refuses to exercise his power of logic and common sense. We end up in a situation like we are in presently - economic and otherwise. The government of 2014 should have given enough information to Indians to make a wise selection but that did not end up happening. Lets look at three big mistakes by the Indian voter:
1) The implementation of GST
Even if the ordinary voter did not understand GST and how it works, he definitely got to know of it whenever he bought any product or service. Suddenly there was a new heading in the invoice stating an added cost component of GST. GST was supposed to rationalize taxes across the value chain and result in lower prices for the end customer. But, rather than that happening, the customer was faced with an added tax at the end of it. Barring very few products, most products ended up being expensive for the end customer.
Business owners too ended up on the losing side, as they had to grapple with enhanced paperwork, business costs and more importantly, frequently changing regulations. Rather than spending time on managing the actual business itself, small businesses especially were spending a lot more time in meeting GST regulations. Not just that, there was a fall in demand for products and services, as almost everything got expensive for the end customer. The business owner therefore had to deal with higher business operation costs and fall in customer demand.
The haphazard management of the whole process was adequate to show the lack of planning and anticipation skills within the government. This single litself destroyed the small and medium business enterprises in the country, which employ the biggest chunk of people. In such a situation, what should have ideally been done by the voter ... he should have chosen a government that has a track record of implementing reforms minus the disruption effect. But, he ended up rewarding the same set of people who destroyed their lives with needless disruption. Now, when the voter does not penalize a government for destroying their lives, they have no business crying or cribbing about the current state of their lives. As you sow, so shall you reap.
2) Demonetization
The second major disruption for the ordinary voter was demonetization. He suddenly found himself in a situation where he had no cash for his personal expenses and even for managing his small business that needed cash for running. With no cash, his personal life as well as business were thrown out of gear. The government kept on changing its goal posts and the gullible voter was taken for a royal ride. The voter bought into all the stupid arguments of the government and still believed that demonetization was done for their benefit and for cleaning the corrupt system that existed. He did not even hold the government responsible or even think of logical questions like:
* How did 99.7% of cash in circulation before demonetization come back to the system? So, all the black money suddenly became white as it came to the banking system?
* Why the government did not anticipate the financial misery for Indians for several months after implentation?
* What was the actual motive behind demonetization? Were these motives achieved?
The small and mediu businesses in India just could not recover from this blow, leading to many people being on the streets. The impact on the farming community was also affected beyond repair.
If the voter does not take into account the impact on his life due to disruptive actions of the government, then what business do they have to complain about the government. If you do not exercise the power in your hand through your vote, then stop complaining about your problems.
3) Agricultural Neglect
The farmer as well as his consumer in the urban markets were equally scammed by the government and both ended up voting for the government again in 2019. The urban voter in India simply pays no heed to agricultural misery. Rural voters have money in hand with a good harvest. Once they make money, they spend on education, buying products like TVs, vehicles etc, buying clothes and other indulgences etc. The companies in urban areas making these products directly benefit from the increased offtake of such products. So, if agriculture is not doing well, it affects all and not just the farmer. But, the urban resident had scant regard for this issue and did not even ask the right questions. Today, when his own life is thrown out of gear, he has to blame himself for being too self-centred and choosing a government that just does not have its priorities in place.
After all, having right priorities needs education, formal work experience ... our PM and many of his ministers have never had a formal job. Have always been party workers ... so, they only do what is good for the party and not for the country.
Even after all this the voter is talking about having Modi as PM for life. If you continue with that thought, we will possibly have only countries like Zimbabwe, Yemen, Syria and Argentina for company.
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