“Puducherry has a presence on India’s western and eastern coasts. This land is a symbol of diversity. People speak five different languages, practise different faiths, but live as one.” These are the words uttered by none other than Prime Minister Narendra Modi on his recent visit to this extremely scenic and holy land. Unfortunately, the erstwhile Congress government in the last five years completely disregarded the mandate of the people and did precious little to develop this Union Territory (UT). Days after the Congress-led V. Narayanasamy government fell in Puducherry, Prime Minister Modi minced no words and said that the Congress government had failed to cooperate with the Centre in implementing schemes like the PM Awas Yojana and One Nation One Ration Card, and in the utilisation of Central funds. Modi is absolutely right. Narayanasamy’s unceremonious exit had to happen sooner rather than later, as his corrupt government was increasingly getting besieged by too many inherent contradictions, with Narayanasamy eventually losing the trust vote on the floor of the Assembly. Surely, Puducherry deserves better. And the electorate is clearly yearning for change after the five years of inept rule foisted upon them by the Congress.
While people voted for the Congress in 2016 with a lot of aspirations, the party leaders in Puducherry were busy filling their personal coffers. The video of a wrong translation made by Narayanasamy during Congress leader Rahul Gandhi’s recent visit went viral on social media and showcased Narayanasamy’s lack of empathy, besides of course proving that lying with a straight face comes very easily to Congressmen. Focusing on coastal development and reviving the cooperative sector to enhance the lot of women in this UT have simply remained as a bunch of empty promises.
Referring to compulsive liar Rahul Gandhi’s statement on the need to create a separate ministry for fisheries, during his visit to Puducherry in February 2021, PM Modi said that a Ministry of Fisheries had been constituted by the NDA government in May 2019 itself. The website of the Ministry of Fisheries, Animal Husbandry and Dairying says, “The Department of Fisheries is one of the two Departments under the Ministry of Fisheries, Animal Husbandry & Dairying. It came into existence with effect from carving out the Fishery Division from the erstwhile Department of Animal Husbandry, Dairying and Fisheries vide Cabinet Secretariat’s Notification of F.No.1/21/21/2018-Cab,2019”. In fact, in the last two years, the budgetary allocation for the Fisheries Ministry went up by a solid 80%, with the Modi government allocating a good Rs 20,000 crore under the Matsya Sampada Yojana. The credit for constituting a Ministry for Tribal Affairs also goes to the NDA government under Atal Bihari Vajpayee. It is sad that the Congress never passes an opportunity to call others anti-democratic. The party should look into the mirror to understand the harsh reality of its own incompetence.
Panchayat elections were held in Ladakh and recently in Gujarat. Even after the Supreme Court directed that civic body elections be held in the Union Territory of Puducherry, the Congress government did not conduct them, showing scant regard for the democratic process.
The confidence vote which the Congress government lost in Puducherry was necessitated after five MLAs of the Congress, including two ministers and one DMK MLA, resigned from the Assembly. Two of the Congress leaders had joined the BJP. V. Saminathan, president of the BJP’s Puducherry unit, soon thereafter said, “This is a victory for the people. This government, which has not fulfilled even one promise made in its election manifesto, has lost the confidence of not only the people who voted for it, but also its own legislators and ministers. The CM’s claim that he could not carry out developmental work due to interference by Kiran Bedi (the erstwhile LG) and the Centre does not wash.”
The fact that “Sabka Saath, Sabka Vikas, Sabka Vishwaas” is an abiding work ethic for the Modi government is endorsed by the slew of development projects for which PM Modi laid the foundation stone recently. The development of a minor port in Puducherry, estimated at a cost of Rs 44 crore, will be done under the Sagarmala scheme. The port will provide connectivity to the Tamil Nadu capital of Chennai, as well as facilitate cargo movement for industries in Puducherry and ease the load on the Chennai port. Once completed, the port will also help fishermen who have been using this port for venturing into the sea for fishing operations and open up possibilities of passenger traffic among the coastal cities too.
The foundation stone of a synthetic athletic track at the Indira Gandhi Sports Complex was also laid and is expected to cost Rs 7 crore. In a charm offensive, around the theme of the development of Puducherry, Prime Minister Narendra Modi launched a slew of other projects too, across the sectors of logistics, health infrastructure, heritage and pilgrim tourism, totalling over Rs 4,000 crore, to unlock the potential of this beautiful land with a rich talent pool.
It is important to note that in Puducherry, regional parties like the DMK and AIADMK do not overwhelmingly dominate politics, unlike in the neighbouring Tamil Nadu. An indication of this can be seen in seat-sharing agreements. In Tamil Nadu, the two parties are both set to contest over 170 seats in the 234-member Assembly. On the other hand, in Puducherry, the DMK will contest 13 out of 30 seats. The All India NR Congress (AINRC) headed by former Puducherry Chief Minister N. Rangaswamy has entered into a seat-sharing agreement with the BJP and the AIADMK combine for the 6 April Assembly elections in the Union Territory. As per the agreement, AINR Congress will contest 16 seats while the BJP-AIADMK combine will contest 14 seats in the 30-member Assembly. All three nominated seats are currently held by the BJP.
In the upcoming polls, a look at the Congress and BJP’s manifestos gives a glimpse of how they are trying to convey their agendas to the voters. The Congress manifesto is a bunch of freebies including free Covid-19 vaccination for all, 60 GB of free data for higher secondary and college students, laptops for students of standards 10 and 12 and college, and free bus passes and Wi-Fi facilities for rural students. The Congress has also promised the scrapping of the NEET and the NEP, Rs 1,000 as assistance for homemakers and reopening of mills. Most of these tall promises are like old wine in an old bottle. In the last five years, despite a generous allocation from the Modi government, why did the Congress do nothing to improve education accessibility and employment opportunities? Why was nothing done for coastal development and for the rural and tribal populations? As for NEET, education is a concurrent subject and a decision on it cannot be taken by any State Government or UT without consent of the Centre, so the Congress is simply making empty promises that it cannot ever fulfil, even technically speaking.
The Congress has also promised that steps would be taken to reopen government-owned AFT Mills, Swadeshi Cotton Mills, Sri Bharathi Mills and the Cooperative Sugar Mill in Lingareddipalayam. But the people of Puducherry are not going to be misled by the Congress anymore. Why did the Congress not open these mills when it had the power and the mandate? After doing nothing for five long years, why should the electorate of Puducherry believe the Congress yet again?
The BJP, in alliance with the AIADMK and AINRC seems set to sweep the Puducherry election. The BJP in its manifesto has promised free education for girls from kindergarten to higher education, a 50% quota for women in local bodies, reopening of textile mills and setting up of textile parks. Some other proposals include a 150-ft-tall statue of Tamil poet Subramania Bharathi, holding a world investors’ meet to attract investments for industrial development, steps to ameliorate the lot of poor fishermen and development of ports and augmenting infrastructure. In fact, giving relief to fishermen from their hardships during lean periods, along with a comprehensive welfare programme to be adopted for the betterment of fishermen, is one of the big highlights of the BJP manifesto.
To cut to the chase, for the last 35 years, under an incompetent Congress regime, 52% of the population in Puducherry is still below the poverty line, with corruption under ex-CM Narayanasamy extending even to areas like admissions in postgraduate courses in medical colleges. While 70% was the grant in aid to Puducherry from the Centre during former Prime Minister Vajpayee’s tenure, it was cut to 30% when Narayanasamy became a Minister at the Centre during the Congress-led UPA regime. Thereafter, Puducherry went into a debt trap while 76% of the youth in this UT were left unemployed. Employees belonging to the cooperative sector like the Khadi Cooperative Federation have still not been paid salaries for over four years, showcasing the financial mess that the Congress has heaped upon Puducherry and its people for decades. Despite a 613% higher allocation towards 106 Central Government schemes that Puducherry needed to implement, Narayanasamy, consumed by hubris and criminal lethargy, refused to spend money for the welfare of the UT. With a tiny population of barely 2.5 lakh people, the mismanagement of the Covid crisis by the Congress in Puducherry is also palpable, with over 41,000 infections, 684 deaths and over 1,420 active cases.
When Narayanasamy was a Union Minister under the UPA, he waived off a Rs 5,000 crore loan for Jharkhand, but did not waive the loan of Puducherry. Hence, the Congress has no moral high ground to endear itself to the electorate of Puducherry. Namasivayam, who was number two in the Narayanasamy cabinet, was among those who recently quit the Congress and joined the BJP after being fed up with corruption under the Congress. J.P. Nadda, the tirelessly hardworking and dynamic BJP chief, recently said that once the BJP assumes power in Puducherry, salary arrears would be paid to employees, closed down textile mills would be reopened, sugar factories would be modernised and reconstructed and good quality roads would be in place. There is every reason for the electorate of Puducherry to believe in the BJP because inclusivity has been the hallmark of the Modi government, with Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s exemplary governance track record being unparalleled and second to none.
The author is an economist, national spokesperson for the BJP and the bestselling author of ‘Truth & Dare: The Modi Dynamic’. The views expressed are personal.