Nearly 5mn candidates for 60k posts
- The People's Chronicle Editorial :: February 20, 2024 -

STARTING with the "Abki Baar Modi Sarkar (This time, it will be a Modi government)" with full of promise "Acche Din Aayenge (Good times will follow)" in 2014 to "Phir Ek Baar, Modi Sarkar (A Modi government yet again)" along with the tagline "Modi Hai To Mumkin Hai (Modi can make it possible)" in 2019, and now the "Modi Sarkar Ki Guarantee" to woo the voters for the third consecutive term in office; the obsession of BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) Government at the centre to come up with its election slogans and taglines centring around the "Brand Modi" it has carefully crafted and painstakingly marketed is simply unmissable.

With the general elections to the 18th Lok Sabha, the lower house of Indian Parliament, scheduled to be held sometime in April/ May this year, the slogan/tagline of "Modi Sarkar Ki Guarantee", which was used for the first time during the recent assembly elections in five states and helped BJP to win three Hindi-heartland states, is ubiquitous today, whether it be on the backdrop of a stage set up for election rally of the saffron party or on the front page of newspapers one reads with his/her morning cuppa of tea or coffee.

In fact, from eradication of poverty to laying the foundation of a prosperous India for 1,000 years, there has been nothing left that the government-led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi has not guaranteed this time.

In an exclusive interview given to India Today magazine in its January, 2024 edition, Prime Minister Narendra Modi explained that "Modi Sarkar Ki Guarantee" is not mere words or election promises, but the outcome of his decades of hard work.

"Only someone who has experienced a life of poverty understands that the greatest force propelling a poor person forward in life is their trust, their hope.

This faith of the poor is what keeps me going. Modi will put in his all but will not let the trust of his poor brothers and sisters break," these were exact words of Prime Minister Modi quoted by the magazine.

The catchword here is "not breaking the trust" of the poor brothers and sisters of the country.

But, has that been the case really?

Has Prime Minister Narendra Modi fulfilled any of the promises made to the people in the last 10 years of rule of his BJP-led NDA Government at the centre?

We are raising these questions in the light of a news report carried by Hindustan Times on Saturday last under the headline, "60k posts, nearly 5mn candidates: Aspirants throng to UP as state constable exam starts."

What really caught our attention is the sheer number of candidates, who have come to try their luck not only from Uttar Pradesh but also from other states such as Bihar, Madhya Pradesh, West Bengal, Jharkhand and Delhi, among others.

The report said that exam had to be spread over two days (Saturday and Sunday) in two shifts each after the Uttar Pradesh Police Recruitment and Promotion Board (UPPRPB) received 4.81 million applications, including 1.5 million women applicants, from 11 states, and of the total applicants, around 4-2 million are from Uttar Pradesh with the remaining from other states.

Interestingly, just a day after this exam, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, on Monday, claimed during a Rozgar Mela programme that his government has provided 1.5 times more jobs in the past decade compared to the previous government in the same timeframe.

We don't know on what basis or data; the Prime Minister has made the claim. But simple logic says that there would have been no such mad rush for taking part in any recruitment among the unemployed youth of the country if the government had been successful in solving the unemployment problems by creating two crore jobs a year as it had promised to do so when it came to power in 2014.

Just imagine, if that promise had been kept, there would be 40 crore new jobs by March, 2024, and there would not be any need for the Modi Sarkar to guarantee anything to the people for winning any election.