With the election year round the corner, this blog is an attempt to measure this Government's performance so far.
1. Legislations enacted/amended
With intelligentia, media and all those one could look upto becoming hopelessly partisan, this is an attempt to objectively measure performance, first setting the measurement criteria.
I am going to first set the criteria, then do some research for data (i.e. google :) ), and then infer what emerges from the data.
Off we go..
The criteria used.
1. Legislations enacted/amended
2. Developmental programmes
3. Results in economic and social parameters
4. Rule of Law
5. Corruption
6. Higher Education
7. Foreign policy and its fruits
8. Security situation
9. Political discourse and standard
10. Freedom of expression
1. Legislations enacted/amended
The prime function of a law maker is of course to make laws. So let's see how they have performed on that front.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Acts_of_the_Parliament_of_India
While the productivity of our lawmakers is abysmal, we have to live with what we have. Doing a relative comparison of the various laws enacted in this Govt's period vs earlier ones, one sees that some of the progressive ones with far reaching positive impact have come from this period.
And then the v.important GST which Congress started talking about in 2006-07 itself but did precious little. Pulling GST off itself is a very commendable contribution, in spite of the fact that this is a politically risky move.
Each of the above laws tries to clean up the crooked business + beauracracy + politician nexus that has poisoned the Indian body politic over the many decades.
What about the Congress rule? The table of legislations looks quite long in that period as well.
Apart from the many which just zap taxpayers money and set up universities such as Nalanda university, and Rajiv Gandhi National Institute of Youth Development Act, 2012 etc. I could spot the below as some progressive ones - by the name.
1.
| Sexual Harassment of Women at Workplace (Prevention, Prohibition and Redressal) Act, 2013 | 2 |
From a quick read of the provisions (the company must set up a committee where the complaint should be discussed blah blah ..) and below article, it looks like a non-starter.
https://www.firstpost.com/india/sexual-harassment-at-workplace-69-victims-did-not-complain-to-management-says-survey-3189524.html
A necessary law, long overdue, whether it could have been done better etc. I don't know. Not competent now. But at least repealed a British era law and replaced with many necessary changes.
A necessary and good one imo, though many see it as populist and fiscally irresponsible.
Rest of the acts I see are lack lustre, not serving any significant purpose. Some like RTE are downright controversial apparently favoring minorities to the disadvantage of majority run institutions. It has v.recently managed to split Linghayats. Regarding it's benefits, I am not aware of any child that got free education in any fee collecting school through this act. I would ask the readers to ask themselves whether they have come across any.
On the Legislation front BJP govt wins in a big margin. Also, we shouldn't forget that they didn't have necessary strength in Upper house for a long time.
If you want to see some more far reaching positive legislations you need to travel back in time to 1998-2004, which happens to be the NDA period under Shri.Vajpayee). Some samples below
| Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority Act | 1999 | 41 |
| Foreign Exchange Management Act | 1999 | 42 |
| Electricity Act, 2003 | 2003 | 36 |
| Fiscal Responsibility and Budget Management Act | 2003 | 39 |
| Central Vigilance Commission Act |
So let me end this section with the clear verdict that BJP is far far ahead in terms of useful, effective legislation.
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