Why the BJP may lose Rajasthan?
- In Politics
- 10:18 PM, Nov 17, 2018
- Contrarian
BJP has been focusing on bijli-sadak-pani (electricity-roads-water), which isn’t a bad thing. The improvement in infrastructure doesn’t go unnoticed. The pace of infrastructure development has never been faster as in the past few years. One can forgive BJP for thinking that it is a stellar achievement in electrifying the remotest corners, taking India from a perpetually power deficient state to a state of power surplus with a near 24x7 availability of power to everyone. This along with completing highway and other public construction projects that were stalled for decades and bringing the convenience of metro to cities to name a few, has made it an automatic choice for a repeat mandate.
But something more basic than that has been neglected, and that is roti-kapda-makaan (food-clothing-house). In these basic needs as well, due to low inflation, agriculture growth helped by a string of fairly good monsoons, the food & clothing part has been largely taken care of, and there aren’t many serious complaints on that front. But it’s the makaan that is going to turn out to be the Achilles heel for BJP in Rajasthan. Due to ban on bajri (sand) mining, lakhs of people in the process of house construction for themselves have been left stranded, the anger is pulpable, a very basic need is being denied which is negating the good deeds in other areas.
The best help a government of a developing country, that not too long ago was compared with the sub-Saharan countries in terms of poverty, quality of life and human development index and which is forced to pick a huge bill of subsidy for the poor masses, can get from the people is, the people not asking for handout but just supportive policies that help them fulfill most of their basic needs, what we call roti-kapda-makaan. They just want the government policies to make it easier to own a house among other basic things. However in its eagerness to play to the gallery and for the lure of good press, in the conflict between sustainability and perceived basic rights, has taken a toll on the latter.
The only way to solve the very basic need of housing for the masses is not by handouts, but making every raw material that goes into a house construction affordable. That includes not just the building material like cement, bricks, sand etc. but also every other input that goes into a house like affordable land, registration, fast & cheap approvals, every material that goes into it’s construction, fast and cheap connections – power, water, sanitation, internet etc. and so on. Making a house construction dirt cheap is the only way to ensure fulfilment of a basic need for the masses instead of handouts to a small section. And this will include allowing and legalizing mining of building material. A way had to be found out to fulfil both, a very basic need and the society’s need for sustainability, which BJP failed to achieve in Rajasthan and tilted far too heavily towards sustainability over basic rights. For that reason alone it will be forced to give way to someone who is expected to deliver where BJP failed.
BJP can write off Rajasthan as a missed opportunity and wish that it is able to claw back by better promises & hopefully helped generously by the competitor’s failure which only time will tell. But there are lessons for BJP elsewhere to not dilute the focus on basic roti-kapda-makaan issues and letting these subdued by sustainability and other fixation with impressing the gallery.
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