top of page

By:

Correspondent

21 August 2024 at 10:20:16 am

Phantom Promises

The unravelling of the Mukhyamantri Majhi Ladki Bahin Yojana was always a matter of when, not if. Announced with theatrical flourish ahead of the 2024 Assembly election by the ruling Mahayuti coalition, the scheme promised Rs. 1,500 a month to women across the state. It became the Mahayuti government’s showpiece welfare programme and, by all accounts, a decisive political instrument that helped propel the ruling alliance to a comfortable victory. Less than two years later, the curtain has now...

Phantom Promises

The unravelling of the Mukhyamantri Majhi Ladki Bahin Yojana was always a matter of when, not if. Announced with theatrical flourish ahead of the 2024 Assembly election by the ruling Mahayuti coalition, the scheme promised Rs. 1,500 a month to women across the state. It became the Mahayuti government’s showpiece welfare programme and, by all accounts, a decisive political instrument that helped propel the ruling alliance to a comfortable victory. Less than two years later, the curtain has now fallen. Nearly 92 lakh beneficiaries – a whopping 38 percent of those initially enrolled – are now being shown the door as the scheme becomes economically untenable. If such a staggering proportion of beneficiaries never qualified in the first place, what exactly was the government doing when it rolled out the scheme with such urgency? The scheme is a classic case of welfare as a cold election strategy rather than a governance policy. The scheme’s benefits flowed generously just before the election. The scrutiny that has now arrived has exposed it for what it was: a fiscal white elephant. The Comptroller and Auditor General has now compounded the Mahayuti’s embarrassment with its report, which questions expenditure of more than Rs. 3,541 crore under the scheme. Such spending places an unsustainable burden on Maharashtra’s finances. The CAG’s report is an indictment of a style of governance that treats the public exchequer as an extension of the campaign war chest. Across India, governments of every political persuasion have perfected the art of competitive populism. Cash transfers, freebies and subsidies are unveiled with increasing frequency, often without credible fiscal planning or robust verification mechanisms. Welfare has become less about empowering citizens than about cultivating dependable vote banks. Schemes designed primarily for electoral dividends inevitably collapse under their own contradictions, leaving beneficiaries disillusioned and public finances weakened. The greatest injustice is borne not by politicians but by ordinary citizens. Honest taxpayers finance these extravagant promises. Genuine beneficiaries build their household budgets around them. When governments later discover that millions were ‘ineligible,’ it is ordinary families, and not the politicians or their families, who suffer the consequences. If money has indeed been squandered because of political haste, accountability cannot stop with bureaucrats or clerks processing applications. Those who conceived, announced and relentlessly campaigned on the scheme must also bear responsibility. The leaders of the three ruling Mahayuti partners – the BJP, the NCP and the Shiv Sena - who converted public money into political capital should be prepared to answer financially as well as politically. Democracy cannot become an auction where elections are won with taxpayers’ wallets. It is time to end the politics of fiscal bribery masquerading as welfare. Maharashtra deserves governments that create opportunity, not dependency, and policies that survive beyond polling day.

India working on logistics of Tahawwur Rana's extradition

  • PTI
  • Feb 14, 2025
  • 3 min read

Updated: Feb 18, 2025

Tahawwur Rana

Washington: India is working on the logistics of Tahawwur Rana's surrender and extradition from the US, Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri has said, as President Donald Trump announced that his administration has given the go-ahead to extradite the 26/11 terror attack accused “to face justice".

“This is an issue on which the US authorities have taken very clear decisions. I think you've seen the President announce it himself from the White House podium" the decision of the US to extradite Rana, Misri said at a press conference here on Thursday.


During a joint press conference with Prime Minister Narendra Modi in the White House, US President Donald Trump announced that his administration has approved the extradition of "very evil" Tahawwur Rana, wanted by Indian law enforcement agencies for his role in the 26/11 Mumbai terror attacks, "to face justice in India”.


In response to a question by PTI on the timeframe by when Rana will be extradited to India, Misri said: "We are working on the logistics of his surrender and extradition to India. There are a few final steps to be completed. The two sides are in touch on this particular issue.”


The India-US joint statement issued during the Prime Minister's visit to the US notes that Modi and Trump reaffirmed that the global scourge of terrorism must be fought and terrorist safe havens eliminated from every corner of the world.

“They committed to strengthen cooperation against terrorist threats from groups, including Al-Qaeda, ISIS, Jaish-e Mohammad, and Lashkar-e-Tayyiba in order to prevent heinous acts like the attacks in Mumbai on 26/11 and the Abbey Gate bombing in Afghanistan on August 26, 2021," the joint statement said.


“Recognising a shared desire to bring to justice those who would harm our citizens, the US announced that the extradition to India of Tahawwur Rana has been approved," it said.


The leaders further called on Pakistan to expeditiously bring to justice the perpetrators of the 26/11 Mumbai, and Pathankot attacks and ensure that its territory is not used to carry out cross-border terrorist attacks.

"The leaders also pledged to work together to prevent the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction and their delivery systems and to deny access to such weapons by terrorists and non-state actors,” the joint statement added.

Rana, a Canadian national of Pakistani origin, is currently lodged at a metropolitan detention centre in Los Angeles. He is known to be associated with Pakistani-American terrorist David Coleman Headley, one of the main conspirators of the 26/11 attacks.

Speaking at the joint press meet, Trump said "Today I am pleased to announce that my administration has approved the extradition of one of the plotters and very evil people of the world, and having to do with the horrific Mumbai terrorist attack, to face justice in India. So, he is going back to India to face justice."


The extradition of Rana was cleared by the US Supreme Court in January as it rejected his review petition in the case.


India last month said it was working with American authorities for the early extradition of Rana.


"The US Supreme Court on January 21 declined to hear a petition from the accused. We are now working with the US side on procedural issues for early extradition to India of the accused in the Mumbai terror attack," External Affairs Ministry spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal had said.


In November 2012, Ajmal Amir Kasab, the lone surviving gunman among the Pakistani group, was hanged to death in Yerawada Jail in Pune.

-PTI

Comments

bottom of page