The callous, insensitive and prejudiced Modi government has made a mockery of governance and exposed the Indian nation and its people to the hydra of inflation, unemployment, crippling economy, a debilitating trade deficit and failing and a sinking health care system.

The Modi government’s seven-year tenure is riddled with abject failures, both short term as well as long term. The most glaring and the most recent being his catastrophic mishandling of the COVID Pandemic. A quick comparison of COVID related deaths in India versus the USA makes it clear that our leadership has entirely failed us in our collective battle against the disease.

According to the latest statistics from New York Times, India’s COVID related deaths have been significantly higher when compared to other regions of the world and neighboring countries. At the peak of the pandemic, the number of weekly average deaths was 4454. On June 12, it was 3303. In the United States, the average was 370 deaths on June 12. Since the population of India is roughly 4 times of the USA, the death rate in India should have been 4×370 or around 1600. This means the death rate in India has been twice that of the USA, despite aid pouring from all over the world to save Indian lives. A quick look around the neighborhood and put Indians to shame. On June 12, the weekly average death rate in Bangladesh has been 30. India’s population is about 8.7 times larger than Bangladesh, which implies that India’s weekly average death rate should have been just 330 by this metric. At the peak death rate in Bangladesh on April 23, the average figure was just 981 which implies that the peak weekly average death rate in India should have been 850. For Pakistan, the peak weekly death rate was 140 on April 28 and on June 12 it was 61 deaths. Since the population of India is 6 times that of Pakistan it implies that as per Pakistan’s standard, the peak weekly deaths in India should have been 850 and on June 12 it should have been 360.  It is clear that India, with its far larger economy, has been performing ten times worse than its immediate neighbors in handling Covid deaths.

The GDP Debacle

On the economic front too, India’s performance has been dismal. As per the latest data, the growth rate of India has been -7.3% for the fiscal year 2021 (. The US and China are much bigger economies than India and suffered the pandemic at an equal scale. However, their economies grew at the rate of 2.6% and 8.4% respectively. It is clearly the total failure of the Modi government and his regressive economic policies that this difference exists.

Another issue of major concern is the alarming Balance of Trade deficit with China as a cause of sluggish GDP growth of India. According to Chinese customs data, it is being touted that, “trade between China and India soared 70.1% in US dollar terms in the first five months of this year to $48.16 billion.” Specifically, Chinese exports to India grew 64.1% year-on-year from January to May, while imports surged 90.2%., the tabloid Global Times reported. The trade deficit during the same first five months of 2021 has been $45 billion, which is 1.5% of India’s GDP. Since GDP = Consumption + Investment + Government Expenditure + Balance of Trade, India’s GDP is down by 1.5% in just five months of trade with China. Taken annually, at this rate of trade deficit with China, 3.6% of India’s GDP would be taken away by China.

It is very surprising that the Modi Government seems oblivious to this drain on India’s economy. President Trump imposed heavy import duties on China in the year 2018 and that has been continued under the Biden administration, but the Indian Government is not even realizing this problem. Where is the competence of our finance and commerce ministries? Under Modi’s rule, with India-China trade volume being $87.6 billion in 2020, China overtook the US to become India’s largest trading partner, despite a bloody conflict along the Line of Actual Control (LAC) and the rising anti-China sentiment among Indians. All the Asian tigers, including both China and Japan have achieved miracles because of trade surpluses, but Modi’s government does not even realize that India’s wealth is being drained by the Chinese. Even the richest and the most powerful country, the United States, could not survive the economic drain on US GDP caused by trade deficit with China. This issue must be looked at urgently and discussed openly and vigorously in parliament.

Inflation and Unemployment

Not just GDP setbacks, India’s inflation for the year 2020 was 6.2% — far above the stated goal of 4%. The Government’s failure on unemployment reduction too is stark.  Over 10 million (1 crore) Indians have lost their jobs because of the second wave of Covid-19, and around 97 per cent of individual household income has declined since the beginning of the pandemic last year. The total figure of unemployed workforce has risen to 3.5 crores.

Besides this, the abysmally short-sighted policies of the government have accentuated the problem of stagflation. India has experienced the worst of both the worlds because of the current regime. The relationship between inflation and unemployment has historically been inverse in many parts of the world, including in India under Dr. Manmohan Singh’s government. But India under Modi has seen higher inflation and higher unemployment. This means stagflation is a special gift of this government to us because of its disastrous economic policies.

The Inequality Monster

Inequality is on the rise. Only two business families in the country – the Adanis and Ambanis have been accumulating wealth by exploiting the rest of India. As already discussed, 97% of Indians have become poorer while the wealth of Mukesh Ambani has tripled since Modi was elected in 2014. Gautam Adani’s wealth has increased by about 30 times. As per Forbes records, Gautam Adani’s wealth was just $3.5 billion in March 2016, and jumped to $75 Billion on June 13, 2021.

The callous, insensitive and prejudiced Modi government has made a mockery of governance and exposed the Indian nation and its people to the hydra of inflation, unemployment, crippling economy, a debilitating trade deficit and failing and a sinking health care system.

The present Government still has three more years to go before it faces the people in a general election. It is time for some serious course-correction by the Modi Government, for the sake of its own survival and but more importantly, for the people of India. Let us hope that the Modi Government shakes off the ignorance and arrogance that it is becoming known for and strategizes by putting the people of India first to perform with heart, mind and muscle in the second half of their thus far catastrophic tenure.

(The author, holder of 3 masters – MBA (Marketing), MBA (Finance) and MS Computer Science, has worked extensively in the financial industry in New York. He is a veteran community leader associated with many Indian Organizations)