It's a role-reversal for students at Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) who have taken it upon themselves to come up with a report card, not on themselves, not on their seniors but on the Prime Minister of India, Narendra Modi himself. According to their 'report card', made with assistance of students from other universities and social activists, the PM has not been able to deliver what he had promised.
From unemployment to 'pakoda' jobs, from money laundering to petrol prices and from attacks on journalists to threat on the judiciary, the students have covered the actions of the central government. "The fact that the Modi government has just completed four years in office, we thought it would be interesting for us to do some research and provide information about all that has been happening over the last 48 months in an easy-to-read format with facts and figures, charts and illustrations," said Amit Julka, a PhD student based in Singapore.
The portal is an easy-to-read and accessible report card so that the voters can make a decision in the 2019 elections. "We are unfortunately living in a post-truth world and the era of fake news and so the thought behind bringing out this report card was to provide people with a reservoir of facts and a comprehensive “big picture” of what has been happening in India since 2014," said Mohit Kumar, who is part of the team.
The response to the 'report card' is tremendous. In just six days of its launch, the site has received over 13 million views. "People want to know what’s going on. People know things are not going right and they actually appreciate the fact that there is a site like this which gives them a detailed overview of the last four years," Raghu Godavar, a social activist.
Don't believe the team, if you don't want to. Here, read a bit of their analysis:
- Narendra Modi came to power on the promise of creating 1 crore jobs every year. But his government has barely succeeded in creating 2.05 lakh jobs each year. The unemployment rate has gone up from 3.41% in 2014 to 6.23% in 2018.
- Instead of the 4 crore jobs that were promised over 4 years, only 8.23 Lakh jobs have been delivered in the last 4 years (till October 2017) and according to the International Labour Organization, most of it classified as vulnerable employment. Based on its estimate of the number of people aged 15 and above, the report projects that to even maintain constant employment rates up to 2025, India will need to create at least 80lakh jobs every year!
- It is estimated that the government earned Rs. 4.5 lakh crores every year since 2014 through excise on oil but kept that money and did not pass on the benefits to the common man. The big question is, “Where did all that money go?”
- Modi promised to be the country’s chowkidaar. But under his watch, since 2014, there have been 12,787 bank frauds amounting to Rs. 17,789 crores!
- India has now slipped to 136th place in the World Press Freedom Index. In 2017 alone, 12 journalists either murdered or killed in suspicious situations.
- For the first time in the history of India, 4 Supreme Court Judges addressed a press conference expressing their grave concerns over the mismanagement of the Supreme Court.
After reading the gutsy report card, EdEx asked the students if they have received any negative reactions after releasing it. We haven't received any threat yet. And we hope not to either. But please think about it — Why should anyone be threatened for stating the facts? Isn’t 'Satyameva Jayate' India’s official motto, emblazoned on every official emblem? Don’t we all have a responsibility to the truth and the facts? It’s a very sad state of affairs when people who are just trying to tell the truth, end up getting trolled and attacked viciously on social media," said Shelha Rashid, youth leader and former VP, JNUSU
The report which uses the tag 'Made in India' is available online under the link: modireportcard.com. "We believe that it is our duty, as responsible citizens, to point that out. It is important that people have the facts at their fingertips so they can make an informed and wise political decisions and we hope this Report Card will help them to do that," the Aditi Chatterjee, another team member and MA student at JNU concludes.
