Economy worsened since 2016 ... RBI survey

Pre-poll surveys might still be leaning towards Modi, but the recent highly rated RBI's Consumer Confidence Survey tells another tale. The survey was conducted in Bengaluru, Chennai, Hyderabad, Kolkata, Mumbai and New Delhi, has showed that 48% of the citizens believe that the Indian economy has deteriorated in 2018 from the previous round. On general economic situation, income, spending, employment and price level about 48% felt the general economic situation in May 2018 was worse than a year ago and 32% perceived an improvement.

• Households in general were pessimistic about the employment situation, with 44% of them feeling that it has actually worsened. An aggregate of 51% have said that do not expect any change or expect employment prospects to deteriorate in the coming year.
• Over 88% felt that the general price level has increased and over 83% said they expected it will keep increasing in the coming year too.
• The proportion of households expecting their spending will increase in the next one year remained almost unchanged at over 83%.
• Modi government is facing a flak on the price situation as continuously increasing petrol and diesel prices have led to a spike in the rates of almost all essential commodities and transportation.
• GDP grew at 7.7% in the Q4 FY18, the fastest pace in seven quarters, aided primarily by sustained government spending. While private investments are struggling to recover, slowing of private consumption (54.6% against 59.3% in the previous quarter) the main growth engine, is also a cause for concern. 
• Even though the government has been patting its back on bringing down inflation, 79% of respondents felt that it has actually gone up. Many respondents felt that the prices have increased and will continue to increase going ahead. About 83.8% expects food prices to rise in the next three months as against just 77.2% a year back. 
• Retail inflation, measured by the year-on-year change in the CPI, rose from 4.9 % in May to 5% in June, driven by an uptick in inflation in fuel and in items other than food and fuel. RBI Governor Urjit Patel says RBI needs to maintain inflation at the legislated target of 4%.
• One of the major pointers towards a slowdown is the fact that people's incomes have remained stagnant. 48.9% households said that their incomes have remained same, it has gone up for 27% and gone down for 23%.
• And even though incomes have declined, spending has shot up. People are spending more on essential items. For 85% spending on essential items has gone up,  while for 52% it has gone up on non-essential items.

Earlier in June 2018, Piyush Goyal, finance minister in-charge, dismissed the RBI's consumer confidence survey findings. "I think the facts speak for themselves, with 7.7% growth. Some people with blinkers on seem to have come out with a report that does not gel with reality then I have no answer to them, but there will always be some naysayers in this world,” he said. 

Modi's fake data wont work anymore. He must stop spreading false data and 

take action or should say BJP do not have good finance knowledge and 

hire experts where ever they are available ... A citizen

The BJP will not enjoy the tail winds it enjoyed in 2014 in the next elections. However, a lack of hope that the economic situation will improve significantly in the next one year. Economic mismanagement is an important opposition charge. Still the electorate has not placed its bet on an anti-Modi campaign, like it did in an anti UPA campaign in 2012. A status quo in these trends suggests it may still be advantage BJP in 2019 at a time when the opposition is banding together. It is good that institutions are coming out of Modi's evil influence in spreading fake data. Needless to say that present situation is as bad as it was in 2013-14, the last year of UPA's 10 year regime. Majority people not expecting any improvement in economy indicates their loss of confidence Modi's capabilities and could spell doom, in 2019 elections, for Modi & BJP. 

Amit Shah: Sunstroke

• Bharatiya Janata Party leader Amit Shah's son Jay Amitbhai Shah's Temple Enterprise Private Ltd. engaged in negligible activities and recorded losses in previous years. 
• In 2014-15, it showed a profit of Rs 18,728 on revenues of only Rs 50,000 before jumping to a turnover of Rs 80.5 crore in 2015-16.
• Temple Enterprise’s revenues came at a time when the firm received an unsecured loan of Rs 15.78 crore from a financial services firm owned by Rajesh Khandwala, the samdhi (in-law) of Parimal Nathwani, a Rajya Sabha MP and top executive of Reliance Industries.
• Shah’s lawyer sent in a response with a warning that criminal and civil defamation proceedings would be launched in the event of “any slant or imputation which alleges or suggests any impropriety on his part.”
• During UPA-II, BJP confronted Congress party president Sonia Gandhi’s son-in-law, Robert Vadra, how he managed to grow his real estate businesses on the basis of unsecured loans from DLF. 
• The massive increase in revenues is coming from the “sale of products”. This included Rs 51 crore of foreign earnings, up from zero the previous year.
• The ROC filings reveal an unsecured loan of Rs 15.78 crore from a listed entity, KIFS Financial Services. The revenue of KIFS Financial Services for the same financial year when the loan was given was Rs 7 crore. The annual report of KIFS Financial Services does not reflect the Rs 15.78 crore unsecured loan given to Temple Enterprise.
• KIFS Financial Services promoter Rajesh Khandwala’s daughter is married to Parimal Nathwani’s son. Ahmedabad-based Nathwani heads the Gujarat operations of Reliance Industries. He is an independent member of parliament from the upper house. His re-election to the Rajya Sabha in 2014 was supported by BJP legislators in Jharkhand.
• Jay Shah’s lawyer said in his written response to The Wire stated that Rajesh Khandwala is an old friend of Shah's family.
• Specific question to Khandwala about why the annual report of KIFS Financial Services for the loan year does not mention the loan to Jay Shah’s company went unanswered.
• The massive increase in revenues is described in the filings as coming from the “sale of products”. This included Rs 51 crore of foreign earnings, up from zero the previous year.
• Shah’s filings with the RoC also reflect Rs 25 crore worth of finance from the Kalupur Commercial Cooperative Bank. The board of directors of the bank include individuals from the Nirma group and Nirma university. The chairman emeritus of the bank is Nirma’s Ambubhai Maganbhai Patel.
• Chudasama, a former director of the Ahmedabad District Cooperative Bank, was chargesheeted by the CBI in 2010 for attempting to “convince, coerce, threaten, and influence witnesses on [Amit Shah’s] behalf to conceal the truth from the CBI” about the fake encounter of Sohrabuddin and his wife Kauser-bi. In 2015, a special CBI court discharged Chudasama from the case, just as it had discharged Amit Shah too in December 2014.
• Jay Shah’s partnership has also availed of a Rs 10.35 crore loan from IREDA. It is controlled by the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy. Piyush Goyal was the minister at the time the loan was sanctioned.
• BJP will unleash 'whataboutery' technique instead of defending or explaining.

The Golden Touch of Jay Amit Shah

Kudos to Rohini Singh and The Wire for exhibiting courage to publish article against Modi & Amit Shah when entire media got subverted and dancing to Modi's tunes. The report created ripples on social media. Jay Amit Shah filing defamation case and his advocate abstaining from court speaks volumes. Piyush Goyal addressing a press conference defending a non-political entity but also proudly proclaiming that Jay Amit Shah would slap a 100 crore defamation suit against the organization and its reporter is only meek acknowledgement of facts. There was an eerie silence on news channels. In an ideal world this intimidation should have led to an outrage in the media. An investigative report should have been the subject of discussion, criticism, arguments and debate. Silence by intimidation being the last on the charter of a journalistic organization. The BJP leaders, including Union Railways minister Piyush Goyal and Home Minister Rajnath Singh have defended Jay Shah, even as Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi took potshots at BJP saying that BJP's campaign of Beti Bachao (save the girl child) now appears to have turned in to the campaign about Beta Bachao (save the son). All politicians are same whether BJP or Congress. They loot public money for personal enrichment. They are parasites barring very few exceptions. As the citizens of India, it is our right to demand that the govt and its loonies stop destroying an important hallmark of democracy [Media]. Who ever posed a threat to our media will be voted out. 

Modi's vikas gone berserk in Gujarat

• In 2014, 'Vikas' (development) was the plank that helped Narendra Modi transition from Gujarat chief minister to India's prime minister.
• Vikas now symbolises the frustration of those who feel let down by the BJP in general and by Modi in particular.
• The phrase 'Vikas gando thai gayo chhe (Vikas has gone berserk)' is reverberating at every nook and corner of the state and there is no way the BJP can control this. The phenomenon was felt in a big way during Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's visit to Gandhinagar and Ahmedabad in Modi's company.
• Throughout Abe's visit to Gujarat, the people kept on circulating pictures of well-lit landmarks like the Nehru Bridge, Ellis Bridge and Sabarmati Riverfront, which is Modi's dream project, with the caption – 'Diwali of Vikas' father (Modi)'.
• Some of these pictures carried the question – 'Kona baap ni Diwali? (Whose father's Diwali is this?)' and the answer below was 'Vikas na Pappa ni (Vikas' father's)'. These pictures had an insert of Modi with the caption Vikas gando thai gayo chhe.
• While the Vijay Rupani-led government in Gujarat and the officials of the Modi-led Central government tried to play up the launch of the Bullet train project between Ahmedabad and Mumbai, the agitated people were in no mood to relent and came up with new humorous and sarcastic takes on it.
• The first one hit out at the prohibition policy in Gujarat with a message that went – 'Amdavadis can now hop on to the Bullet Train, enjoy the drinks in Happy Hours in Mumbai and return back home by the same train. There is no need to go all the way to Rattanpur (a town on Rajasthan side of the border with Gujarat that has become infamous for Gujaratis going there to binge on alcohol).'
• The second one said – 'We do not go in for even new vehicles during Shraddha period and here the foundation is being laid for the Bullet Train. Hope this train will run?'.
• People made jibes at a channel running the headline 'Bullet yug ki shuruat (Beginning of Bullet era)' by posting a counter on Modi's tenure that was marked by anti-Muslim pogrom and the subsequent phase of 'fake' encounters that said – 'As if it (the bullet era) started 16 years back in Gujarat'.
• There was another message referring to Railways Minister Piyush Goyal saying that the Bullet Train in Japan and he were born on the same date. The question posed was whether India is seeing the advent of yet another 'Iron Man'.
• Another quoted the Maharashtra chief minister saying that the Bullet Train would lead to an increase in the country's GDP. This was taken down with the comment – 'Perhaps he has not seen the latest GDP figures'.
• Then Rupani was quoted as saying that Modi perplexes everyone with new concepts every day. The qualifying comment was – 'Every Indian is under this impact since 2014'.
• With Navratri round the corner, Garba songs have started coming out in the market with lyrics like 'Vikas gando thayo chhe'. The video of this song also has a morphed visual of Rupani saying the words.
• There are references in the songs, saying that Vikas has become an integral part of inflation, fuel price hike, poverty, public loot in the name of Goods and Services Tax and demonetisation etc.
• Modi had used Navratri as a platform right from 2003 onwards to give a makeover to his image of a hardline Hindu leader. Now it is the Vikas videos that are hitting at him and several of them are expected to come up by the time the Navratri revelry hits its peak. And they will in all probability keep on playing in local autos and shops right till the State Assembly polls.
• There is also an audio message from an Ahmedabad resident that has gone viral where the speaker has taken on Modi for the poor management of the Indian railway network. He says: “Earlier people used to send the message that they have reached their destination. Now they say that they have reached ALIVE. Abe agreeing to put in money for this Bullet Train despite Modi's poor track record only shows that Amdavadis are shrewd businessmen who can take anyone for a ride.”
• He then goes on to load his message with high-pitch sarcasm adding – “Modi has been trying to run the Bullet Train named Vikas for the last three years but blame it on his inexperience he has put it in the reverse gear. "Bhakts are happy that the train is running but are not aware that it is running in the reverse direction. Hence the GDP is going in the reverse direction, the rupee is on the reverse against the dollar, business and employment are also in reverse and so has been the impact of demonetisation. "The economists have been shrieking at him to apply the brakes. But since he is running this train for the first time, every time he tries to apply the brakes he steps on the accelerator. "The request (to Abe) is that there is no problem if you give a Bullet Train but please explain the functioning of gears and brakes because you will go back with a fruitful business deal and Modi's Vikas will derail at the speed of the Bullet Train.”
• Vikas jokes are doing the rounds among every section of the society. The most prominent one is about Zilla Vikas Adhikari (District Development Officers), Naib Vikas Adhikari (Deputy Development Officers) and Taluka Vikas Adhikari (Block Development Officers) asking the government to remove Vikas from their designation because people are tempted to suffix 'Gando thai gayo' (Has gone mad) with it. 
• There is another message that comes as a question – “Why did nine girls break their engagements in the last one week?” The answer is – “Because the name of the boy was Vikas.”

Be nice to those you meet on the way up because you will meet them on the way down

This reminds me of popular saying paraphrased as what you throw up will come back and fall on your face with double the speed and weight. While anti Congress propaganda so far was the work of BJP's paid backroom boys and its unemployed troll brigade aspiring to be in limelight this one anti Modi propaganda in social media is from disgruntled people who felt severely let down by Modi during the past 3.5 years. Modi often claims that he is relentlessly fighting corruption but if he wants to walk the talk he must disclose source of funds to BJP and its expenses to public. Unless he does that, what ever he talks is shallow and hollow.