There was a widespread idea being propagated by media that the people of the country are largely upset with BJP’s rule and that they are not going to come back into power. But upsetting most calculations, Modi led BJP has come back with a thumping majority. The opposition is still analyzing the causes of the defeat, while Shekhar Gupta, the owner of the leftist portal The Print and the Chief of Editor’s Guild while speaking at a discussion on ‘How India Voted’ admitted that journalists chose to ignore the effects of Modi government’s welfare schemes before the elections.
Shekhar Gupta says, “Now I have to say this very honestly, that we journalists and commentariats, chose not to see it. And even when we see it increasingly, we compulsively tried to deny it. ‘Oh they got the gas cylinders, but they can’t afford the next cylinder. The next one is full price.’ But that is a lie, the next one is not full price. The next one you pay full price, you get the subsidy amount back at your bank account.”
“The fact is that these people had never seen the delivery of anything. And even if they got any delivery they had not seen the delivery of anything without having to pay bribes for it including in most cases NAREGA wages. It’s a big change. It’s a big governance exercise. You may like it you may not like it but smart people are learning from it”, Gupta said talking about how the Modi government changed the governance in the country.
He also had some words for Rahul Gandhi.
“In so many days of campaigning, I never heard Rahul Gandhi or anybody from Congress Party, say anything good about what their own government did under UPA II. This is the autoimmune disease of the Congress Party. They want to blame Modi, they want to blame the media”, said Gupta.
“The vote has been bullshitted for too long in the name of schemes. The voter in this country does not trust the Congress schemes. Forget it. Anything that happened in the past, very little got to her”, he added.
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