Need to shun ‘shortcuts’ for political gain: Vaishnaw

Union Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw the debate on “shortcuts” versus good governance was needed for the future and drew a sharp line between the actions taken by the Modi government and others in terms of welfare

Union Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw’s statements came in the background of repeated attempts by Prime Minister Modi to flag the issue of freebies and even the Supreme Court stepping into the issue via a case being heard there. File | Photo Credit: PTI

India will have to evolve a sustainable development model across the country that shuns shortcuts for political gain, said Union Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw, echoing Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s frequent calls for the same, and efforts to raise a public debate on “freebie” culture in electoral politics.

Speaking to The Hindu, Mr. Vaishnaw said that efforts by the Narendra Modi government, since it was voted in, in 2014, were to shift to long-term moves that bring in good governance and transparency versus “shortcuts” of offering “freebies” that have no long term impact of easing the everyday life of citizens.

“All efforts, be it opening of 45 crore Jan Dhan accounts to increase financial inclusion, seeding of 135 crores of Aadhar identification leading to the disbursal of ₹26 trillion to beneficiaries under various programmes, and even the 219 crore COVID-19 vaccinations done in the space of one year and 10 months shows that the Modi government has a long-term view on reaching benefits to the citizen in a transparent manner, and as part of its governance agenda,” he said.

He added that the debate on “shortcuts” versus good governance was needed for the future and drew a sharp line between the actions taken by the Modi government and others in terms of welfare. “There is a huge qualitative difference between resolving to provide five lakh jobs in the space of a tenure and announcing a ₹1,500 allowance for the unemployed, one clearly empowers, and the other fosters a dependency,” he said.

He also said that the conception of welfare programmes by the Modi government demonstrates this line between good governance and shortcuts, and specifically cited the programme to build toilets in rural areas, which he said was a “huge tool of empowerment for rural women” who ran the gauntlet on security earlier with no toilets at home and open defecation.

He said that all of this is also demonstrable in the reforms in taxation, like faceless assessment, and in the transparent auction of national resources like spectrum, that raised ₹4.64 lakh crore (2G to 5G) over the years. “Benami properties worth ₹4,300 crore have been seized and 1.75 lakh registrations of shell companies cancelled,” he added stating that this was all a part of the larger architecture of good governance.

Mr. Vaishnaw’s statements came in the background of repeated attempts by Prime Minister Modi to flag the issue of freebies and even the Supreme Court stepping into the issue via a case being heard there. On Sunday evening too, while inaugurating projects worth ₹75,000 crore in Nagpur and Goa, Prime Minister Modi had said that people should “expose” political parties trying to damage the economy for “their selfish purposes.”