The two years of Narendra Modi government at the centre have seen a complete neglect to the real issues that people of India face. No attempts have been made to tackle these and only programs to buttress certain populist slogans have been vigorously followed. Most of these programs are inherently flawed. People from various walks of life including intellectuals, academicians and activists came together to discuss the performance of the BJP government, at New Delhi’s India International Centre on 23rd and 24th May 2016 for the Idea of India Conclave.
Here are excerpts from a talk by Bezwada Wilson on the politics of division and exclusion pursued by the Modi government. Wilson said that growth has not been accompanied by social welfare. He cited the example of Swach Bharat program and noted how the new toilets being constructed by the government were without sewage. He raised questions on who would clean these newly built toilets? He noted that such policies, carried out whilst turning a blind eye to prevailing social order and rampant practices like manual scavenging, amount to an increased burden on the most discriminated sections of society.