My Columns: Without Fear and Favour

Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s I-Day Speech By Deepak Parvatiyar August 18, 2015 (Published in elections.in) If Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s maiden Independence Day speech last year was meant to break the monotony of convention – to give an unambiguous message of change to the countrymen from the nation’s biggest stage. However, his second address to the nation from the ramparts of the Red Fort this year was a mix of stock-taking exercise and the roadmap ahead. Just at a time when much is at stake for the Bharatiya Janata Party in the ensuing Bihar elections, and where again Modi is the front, the Prime Minister’s thrust on issues concerning farmers’ welfare in no uncertain terms addressed the electorates in agrarian Bihar. Consider that the Prime Minister devoted almost one-tenth of his speech to the farmers. A very significant announcement was the changing the nomenclature of the ‘Ministry of Agriculture’ to the “Ministry of Farmer Welfare’ – “Agricultural growth is as important

Understanding the GST Bill Impasse By Deepak Parvatiyar August 17, 2015 (Published in elections.in) On the completion of the first year of the Narendra Modi government at the Centre, the Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley was upbeat about creating history – “We are in the process of creating history by bringing about the most important indirect tax reform - the GST (Goods and Services Tax)”, he had told media persons on May 22. However, the government’s plans of creating history went awry because of the logjam in the monsoon session of Parliament over ‘Lalitgate’ and ‘Vyapam’ scams. (refer to  http://www.elections.in/blog/was-bjp-a-lenient-opposition-as-compared-to-congress/ ). The delay in the implementation of GST now threatens to derail the reform process in no uncertain terms. The Government had set the April 1, 2016 deadline to roll out the GST regime. Little surprise, therefore, that once the monsoon session of Parliament ended in a virtual washout on August 13