Challenges before the new government
The JD(S)-Cong coalition government has come into existence with the swearing in of H D Kumaraswamy as the 25th Chief Minister of Karnataka. Senior Congress leader Sonia Gandhi, Congress President Rahul Gandhi, Communist Party leader Sitaram Yechury, Chief Ministers of Andhra, Kerala and West Bengal Chandrababu Naidu, Pinarayi Vijayan, and Mamata Banerjee (respectively) had taken part in the coveted event. BJP observed a ‘dark day’ opposing this oath taking ceremony, but didn’t seem to have received much support.
Kumaraswamy who is becoming the Chief Minister for second time over has a sea of challenges before him. Some of the problems that have existed since ages have suddenly turned more complicated in the recent past. The cauvery imbroglio, the Mahadayi challenge, Ettina Hole project, law and order – all these have to be approached with a new perspective. Along with this, he also needs to focus on giving good administration to the people of the state. Some of the popular schemes launched by Siddaramaiah government have to be continued. His every step has to be counted and calculated since he has to balance the coalition of two major parties in the state.
Prime Minister Modi had indirectly said that he wouldn’t allow a chance for any government other than BJP to come into power in Karnataka. Hence, this can be a huge challenge too. The central government may try to intervene or curtail the state government’s functioning owing to their power. There could be non-cooperation too from the central government, and they may even use the governor to create challenging situations for the state. Not only this, the BJP might try to drive a wedge between the members of coalition. Kumaraswamy has to balance all the factors in order to keep the government going. During the run up to the elections, Kumaraswamy had assured the farmers that he’d waive off the loans completely if his party got people’s mandate.
Now the new CM has execute this after discussing with members of the cabinet and allies. While he took oath to the office of the CM, major opposition parties in the country have come together to create a platform to counter the ruling BJP at the centre. Narendra Modi government is hoping to turn the country into an opposition-less nation, which is quite a threat for democracy. Now, this coming together of all leaders of opposition parties presents a new challenge.
The formation of cabinet is still a challenge for the new government and this has to be resolved amicably. People have placed a lot of hope on not only the new CM, but also on the conduct of Congress and JD(S) members.
The oath taking ceremony of Kumaraswamy has gained national importance for many reasons. All the other parties such as Trinamool Congress, RJD, Telugu Desam, Rashtravadi Congress and two communist parties have come together to counter the Modi govt in 2019 elections. Former Prime Minister HD Deve Gowda has played a crucial role in bringing them together. All of them will face the Modi govt in solidarity in the 2019 polls.
Earlier, an attempt was made to keep Congress out of this equation and form a third front. But in the changed scenario, Congress is crucial for this effort. The leaders may have come to realize this. Mayawati of BSP, Chandrababu Naidu of Telugu Desam will play a very crucial role in this. T R Chandrashekar of Telangana will also join hands with them. This third front will be officially announced in the run up to the Lok Sabha elections. Looks like the leaders had decided to come together at a common platform without much ado. This has happened with Kumaraswamy’s oath taking ceremony. 2019 elections are very crucial as far as the nation’s future is concerned. Narendra Modi has not fulfilled any assurances he had made prior to elections. His major decisions such as demonetization and GST have further pushed people into dismay. Nirav Modi and Lalit Modi have run away from the country after duping our banks of thousands of crores. Banking sector has suffered a huge set back. The government wasn’t able to check this. Hence, the opposition parties would counter the current dispensation in the coming elections. A clear indication of this has been issued with opposition parties coming together in Benagluru when the state got a new CM.
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'Anti-poor' Modi govt bent on 'oppressing' MGNREGA workers: Mallikarjun Kharge
New Delhi (PTI): Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge on Thursday alleged that the "anti-poor" Modi government is bent on "oppressing" MGNREGA workers and reiterated the party's demands that their minimum wage per day be fixed at Rs 400 and that they be provided at least 150 days of work in a year.
Kharge shared on X a media report which claimed that the government is unlikely to raise the daily floor wage under the National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (NREGS) substantially, on top of the usual annual hike, despite recommendations by two panels.
"It seems that the anti-people Modi government has refused to increase MGNREGA wages. This is like attacking the rights of MGNREGA workers," Kharge said in a post in Hindi on X.
He pointed out that recently, the Joint Parliamentary Committee had recommended increasing the daily wage of MGNREGA workers to Rs 400 per day.
"Amarjeet Sinha's High Level Committee formed in 2023 had also suggested increasing wages and increasing the budget of MGNREGA. But the anti-poor Modi government is bent on oppressing MGNREGA workers," the Congress chief said.
Be it excluding nearly seven crore registered workers from MGNREGA by imposing the condition of Aadhaar-based payment, or allocating the lowest MGNREGA budget in the last 10 years as compared to the total budget, the Modi government has been negatively impacting MGNREGA, he said.
"MGNREGA - Employment guarantee scheme was brought by the Congress Party for the poorest families of our country. We are firm on our two demands — Minimum wage of Rs 400 per day should be fixed for MGNREGA workers and at least 150 days of work in a year be provided to them," Kharge said.
