Promises made by various Indian governments that were never fulfilled in last 30 years

India is going to celebrate its 73rd Independence Day on August 15th this year. However, the real question is: are we ‘really’ independent even after 72 full years of being a free country – a country that boasts of being a sovereign, socialist, secular, democratic, republic?!

The answer is a curt NO! We are nowhere near Independence because in the last 72 years, we have had 17 Lok Sabha elections of which approximately 9 have been full 5-year tenures.

Imagine the kind of work that could have gone into building India the right way without corruption and red-tape. But no, India is marred with many ailments since time immemorial!

Here are some broken promises of Indian governments that have plagued us for over 30 years

• No jobs for the youth – The 2011 Census mentions that out of India’s 1.25 billion-strong population half of it is below 25 years of age and approximately 65% was under the age of 35.

Employment opportunities have taken a massive hit from 12.8 lakh new jobs (created during the UPA regime to a mere 6.41 lakh new jobs created under Modi regime which had promised one crore jobs a year. The Modi government is silent on this just like all the previous governments that came before it.

• Fall in foreign investments – Despite many MOUs signed across various investor summits, it is noted that various Central-sector projects with ‘promised’ FDI are stalled/delayed in India.

This ‘stalling’ is at a 45 percent rate for manufacturing and coal sector, 50 percent for the civil aviation sector and an alarming 100 percent rate for the atomic energy sector in a country where pressure on depleting resources is huge! This is because of massive red tape and crony capitalism in our country.

• No end to manual scavenging – This inhumane practice was outlawed in 1993 and in 2013 again, but The Prohibition of Employment of Manual Scavengers and Their Rehabilitation Act 2013 has failed to punish any culprit till date.

India has over 12,000 registered manual scavengers of which 82 percent are in UP. Sadly, over 182,000 families of rural India are manual scavengers of which 95% are women and the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment is still conducting surveys to solve this issue!

• Shoddy pesticide management – In 2017, 40 farmers died in Yavatmal due to Class-1 pesticide poisoning. India reports over 10,000 cases of pesticide poisoning every year even after having the Insecticides Act 1968 which is outdated.

The UPA-I wished to rejig this but the fresh bill was never passed. Surprisingly, Class-1 pesticides namely Monochrotophousand OxydemetonMethyl is banned in over 60 countries and blacklisted by the WHO, but STILL sold widely in India. Shameful!

• No end to rapes – India figures in the Orange zone of the UNODC rape counter reporting roughly 22,000 rapes a year and that is very shameful!

We have never been able to stop rapes despite false electoral promises. Rape is also the fourth-most common crime committed against women in India. No wonder India is called the ‘rape capital’ of the world!

• Falling level of education – The current education system in India is a sham! The failure rate of government school children is in lakhs! Sixty-six percent (1,55,436) students in classes IX to XII of just the Delhi region failed last year!

There is still no stress on vocational education and Madrasas simply do not want to study CBSE or ICSE syllabi. The ‘Sahayak Shikshak’ or guest teacher rehabilitation fiasco is still under SC scrutiny.

• Shoddy healthcare system - India is still waiting for its ‘13 AIIMS’ promise. Amethi a seat held by Congress since decades still doesn’t have an AIIMS till date – wonder what Sonia and Rahul Gandhi had been doing all these years? The Ayushmaan Bharat Scheme is also not covering every citizen of the country – talk about equality…
• Inflation – India's retail price inflation had risen to its an all-time high of 12.17 percent in November of 2013. Compared to October 2018 (3.05 percent), India’s retail inflation jumped to 3.18 percent in June 2019 despite various Chinese import sanctions and indigenous manufacturing incentives in the Budget 2019-2020.

Economists suggest that this figure may jump to 4.8 percent by 2022-2025 owing to the global oil crisis and falling value of the Indian rupee.

• Black money recovery – The nation may have recovered almost all its black money by way of demonetization in 2016-17 however the empty and highly publicized promise of crediting ₹15 lakh in every citizen’s bank account has fallen flat.

Even after many RTIs filed, nothing was deposited in anybody’s account.

• Women’s issues – Acid throwing, honor killings, dowry killings, forced prostitution, sex-selective abortion, etc. are still reported in large numbers.

The National Crime Records Bureau observed that from 1998 to 2010 crimes against women will surpass the population growth rate. Death penalty against rape is still a ‘dream’ in India which reflects only on paper…

• Lokpal – Though in March 2019 the first Lokpal of India was appointed, zero enquiries against corrupt officials have been set up till date.

The Lokpal is empowered by the Prevention of Corruption Act, however, with the latest RTI act amendment, it seems likely that the CVC’s powers will be further curbed.

• Farmer Suicides – Despite several protests and farmer suicides, this phenomenon hasn’t stopped. Since 1995, there have been 60,750 suicides just in Maharashtra!

Overall, annual farmer suicides are at least 1.8 per cent of India’s population and it is an alarming figure because 10 such suicides happen daily!

• Uniform Civil Code – India may act like a secular country, but it isn’t. Kashmiri Pandits haven’t been able to return to Jammu and Kashmir, Madrasas are still not at par with the Indian Education system.

Sikhs and Buddhists are trying since decades to amend Article 25 of the constitution because it still considers them ‘Hindus’, but have failed. Surprisingly, Goa is the only state with a UCC in motion.

Many countries that had their independence around or after India’s like China (1949), Indonesia (1945), Iran (1979), Israel (1948), Malaysia (1957), Russia (1992), Singapore (1965) and United Arab Emirates (1971) have way stronger laws and are far more developed in infrastructure and have better geo-political presence in the world. India seems only focused on religious infighting and sending a man to the moon.

All nations make false promises, but India it seems likes to repeat its mistakes with every successive government. Sad, but true…