Deepak Mehrotra 521 days ago

In Modiji’s campaign speeches , the issue of national security seems to hold centre-stage. Social welfare schemes seldom find a mention. It is unfortunate that national security overwhelms and overtake all other issues - including and especially those that have to do with the state of the economy. In January, a RBI report pointed out that investments have declined for the fifth year in a row. The industrial growth has dropped to 1.7 percent. It is feared that Q4 would be as slow as Q3 which at 6.6 percent was a six quarter low. Growth in consumer spending, which accounts for 60 percent of the economy, slowed to 8.4 percent. These are not mere statistics. They signal that economic slowdown is hurting people. Sluggish consumption is a sign of falling real income ; it is also an evidence of unemployment. The slowdown in the non-farm economy has come on the back of a serious crisis in the farm sector. And agriculturists have not been able to turn to non-farm sector for jobs. Creating enabling conditions for investment to revive this holds key to arresting rural distress. An election campaign bereft of ideas to arrest the economic slowdown does not auger well for the next five years. Outsized presence of national security in Modiji’s LS campaign threatens to diminish or exclude other pressing issues.