Dibrugarh: The All Assam Students Union (ASSU) participates in a protest rally against the Citizenship (Amendment) Act in Dibrugarh, Tuesday, September 1, 2020.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi has taken many initiatives in the country. Many of which have been achieved – Demonetisation, abrogation of Article 370, Make in India, FDI, Startup India, and others. Like any other government, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government at the Center also drew criticism for some of this. In some cases the government had to back down when criticism could not prevail.
As PM Modi completes eight years, here’s a look at some setbacks for the BJP and some of the government’s failures:
Three agricultural laws repealed
On November 19 last year, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, in a televised address to the nation, announced that the government would repeal the laws as it could not reassure a section of farmers on the merits of the new agricultural laws. The move comes after over a year of protests against three laws brought in by the Centre. Farmers first raised their voice against three laws in Punjab on November 5, 2020. The three laws were the Farmers Produce Trade and Commerce (Promotion and Facilitation) Act; Agreement of Farmers (Empowerment and Protection) Price Assurance and Agricultural Services Act; and the Essential Commodities (Amendment) Act.
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There were many incidents of violence and anarchy in India as farmers protested against the three laws. Several police personnel of the Delhi Police were injured, and one died in the protests on January 26, 2021. Despite efforts to convince the farmers in favor of the three laws, the Center had to back down, and thus, the Agricultural Law was brought in. Repeal Act, 2021. The law negates all agricultural laws passed by Parliament last year.
BJP’s defeat in the state assembly elections
The unbelievable, but election-winning machine has also seen some setbacks. Many speculated that the move to repeal the three agricultural laws was to woo voters in Punjab in favor of the Bharatiya Janata Party. Yet, the BJP failed miserably to make a strong name for itself in the state. It lost by a huge margin and managed to win only two seats in the state. Similarly, in West Bengal too, the party performed poorly in the 2021 Lok Sabha elections. Despite Home Minister Amit Shah’s firm claims that the BJP will cross the 200-mark, out of 294 seats in West Bengal, the BJP could not even cross the 147-mark. Compared to the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, the BJP failed. To perform, as its vote share fell to 38.13 per cent, as opposed to over 40 per cent in 2019.
CAA-NRC: No implementation in sight
Back in August 2021, the government informed Parliament that no decision had yet been taken on preparing a National Register of Indian Citizens (NRIC) for the entire country. The stand was kept by the Center for more than a year after the introduction of the NRC. Similarly, with CAA, the implementation is nowhere to be seen. However, Home Minister Amit Shah had recently said that the CAA will be implemented as soon as Kovid ends.
Protests erupted across the country with students taking to the streets to raise their voice against CAA and NRC. Soon after the Citizenship Amendment Bill was passed in Parliament, students of Jamia Millia University and Jawaharlal Nehru University took to the streets to protest against the Act, alleging discrimination against Muslims. The infamous Delhi riots also took place when anti-CAA and pro-CAA protesters clashed in parts of north-east Delhi in early 2020.
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