At the time of writing this article, it is clear that this is going to be the last day of the year 2022 with few hours left when we will transition into a new year.
As this year comes to an end, it also marks a failure on the part of the Modi government to fulfill many ambitious announcements that were made to be accomplished before the year ends.
Here is a list of promises made by PM Modi himself that have failed miserably in their execution and/or results.
1. Indian Economy will double to $5 trillion by 2022
Speaking at the foundation laying ceremony of the India International Convention and Expo Center in 2018, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said that the size of the Indian economy will double to $5 trillion by 2022 with manufacturing and agriculture contributing $1 trillion each.
He further elaborated that the government has the courage to take bold decisions. As it turns out today the Indian economy was 3176.30 billion US dollars in 2021 and with an estimated growth of around 6.9 percent, it will fall much short of the target.
2. India aims to send astronauts into space by 2022
Narendra Modi announced the target from the ramparts of the iconic Red Fort in Delhi on the eve of Indian Independence day.
“We have decided that by 2022, when India completes 75 years of independence, or before that, a son or daughter of India will go to space with a tricolor (Indian flag) in their hands,” he said.
If this was successful, India would have been the fourth country in the world to conduct a manned space mission, after the US, China and Russia. The target set by Modi was even compared to one set by John F Kennedy in 1961 to land an American on the moon by the end of the decade.
The head of the Indian Space Research Organisation (Isro), Kailasavadivoo Sivan, concurred that the timeline for the mission is confirmed, and the astronauts, also known as Vyomanauts (a term derived from the Sanskrit word for space, “Vyom”), will spend at least one week in space.
Leave aside sending a human into space, as of December 2022, the first uncrewed test flight is scheduled to launch no earlier than mid-2024, with the uncrewed second and crewed third flights to follow afterward.
3. Every Indian will have a house by 2022
In 2018, PM Modi was speaking at the ‘Transforming Urban Landscape’ event that marked the third anniversary of three key government initiatives related to urban development.
He said successive governments allowed unplanned and uncontrolled development of cities making urban India a ‘concrete jungle.’
“By 2022, my government will ensure that everyone has a house,” Modi said, adding: “To meet this target, the government has approved 54 lakh houses for people in cities and provided more than one crore houses to the poor in villages.”
It is evidently clear that many Indians still do not have a house. We can get into statistics of how many have been built and they surely have been — but that’s not the point.
4. Bullet Trains To Be a Reality In India By 2022
Prime Minister Narendra Modi, while addressing the Indian diaspora in Oman in 2018, said that the bullet train project will be a reality in India by 2022.
While addressing the Indian Diaspora, PM Modi talked about India’s ambitious bullet train project and said that bullet trains will not only give a boost to the railway network but will also give a boost to the innovation and technology sector. “In new India, we no longer procrastinate,” he further added.
On the ground, there are no bullet trains running in India as the year 2022 comes to an end.
5. Farmer’s income doubling by 2022
In 2017, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said that the target of his government was to double the farmers’ income by 2022.
In 2021, Union Home Minister Amit Shah said that doubling farmers’ income was the biggest priority of the Narendra Modi government and that the three central farm laws would ensure manifold hikes in their earnings.
Looking today, five years down the line, the income of farmers has seen a “marginal rise”, far from “doubling”. Some believe the high inflation rate has grounded their profits back to 2017 levels.
Furthermore, the farmers are also earning comparatively higher income from non-farm businesses and are leasing out land.
Income from wages was 32% in 2012-13 which was recorded to be 40% in 2018-19. This implies that farmers are turning into daily wage laborers.
Again there are nuances like farmer’s protests and withdrawal of the farm bill but we will stick to the unfulfilled promises here.
Governments attempt to show a rosy picture of the future to its citizen. For political gains or by genuine interest to serve people, they sometimes aim much higher and strive harder.
But it is also essential to know if they could achieve the claims they made during various announcements.
As critics allege that Indian media is gradually turning into pro-establishment, we need someone to ask questions.
It is more about keeping each other accountable and learn from mistakes to see whether we or the Indian government could have done any better.
