Mary M. answered • 06/11/19
Lifetime Experience Helping All Ages with Government/Politics Writings
2019 India and status of NDA in regards to capitalism vs. nationalism
"Decade of Decay”. This was how the 2014 general election manifesto of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) described the preceding 10 years under the Manmohan Singh-led United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government. The manifesto went on to explain: “India had a free fall on all fronts—be it governance, economy, diplomacy, foreign policy, border safety, etc. At the same time, corruption, scams and crime against women have reached unacceptable levels. There has been gross misuse and total denigration of government and institutions.... Runaway food inflation has crippled household budgets and contributed to the overall inflationary trend.... Even worse, the food and nutritional security of millions is threatened.... The country has been dragged through 10 years of jobless growth."
"Five years later, every single sentence quoted above comes back to sting the BJP. For, as the Narendra Modi-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government completes its tenure and gets ready to face the general election, its record could be summed up with these very sentences. In fact, the record of the Modi government is even more abject, considering the circumstances in which it came to power. The BJP was given a resounding popular mandate in 2014, with greater political leeway and freedom of governance. But it did not stand in the way of the government pursuing misplaced economic priorities, devious administrative plans and a sectarian and divisive social agenda. The five-year record is marked by a unique form of political bankruptcy which has impacted almost all aspects of public life."
Capitalism definition: https://www.dictionary.com/browse/capitalism ...economic system in which investment in and ownership of the means of production, distribution, and exchange of wealth is made and maintained chiefly by private individuals or corporations, especially as contrasted to cooperatively or state-owned means of wealth.
It is easy to forget that capitalism was coined not so long ago, in the mid-19th century, when the Industrial Revolution was in full swing, and individual entrepreneurs were creating new industries and amassing wealth. Terms for the other two major competing economic systems of the past two centuries— socialism and communism —were also coined around the same time.
On the surface, the meaning of capitalism seems straightforward, referring to an economic system in which private individuals, rather than governments, own property and businesses. But beneath the surface, strong currents of opinion and theory swirl about the term. Many people fiercely espouse capitalism as an economic freedom inseparable from democracy, as reflected in several books considered classics and still avidly read today: for example, Capitalism and Freedom by Nobel laureate Milton Friedman (first published in 1962), and Capitalism, Socialism and Democracy by Joseph A. Schumpeter (first published in 1943). So it may be a challenge to use the term without triggering a discussion of its broader political context.
https://indianculturalforum.in/2018/10/27/india-2019-death-of-democracy-an-inevitable-possibility-under-capitalism/ best updated information see the last paragraph of 'Conclusion' at end of researched article.
