Eliminate rural distress

The editorial on the “Rural wage crisis” (May 22) is important and clearly shows that the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government has neither followed inclusive growth policies nor has been able to achieve higher growth in agriculture production compared to that of 3.4 per cent per annum achieved during the last few years of the United Progressive Alliance government. The growth in agriculture production since 2014 has been on an average only 1.7 per cent. This statistics is not reported in the pompous celebrations of the completion of the four year rule of NDA. So what has gone wrong in the government's policy making?

The first reason behind the rural distress was the unnecessary renaming of the well established institution, the Planning Commission. That was perhaps done with a hope to remove institutions related to the Nehru’s legacy. The second reason was the appointment of the deputy chairman of the NITI Aayog who had no expertise in designing the agriculture-based growth strategies for the Indian economy. The third reason was the ban on cow slaughter affecting the morale of the hard working and discriminated minorities working in the meat industry, and affecting a flourishing export-oriented industry. Finally, the continuous paranoia about genetically modified crops among supporters of the NDA affected the morale of scientists working in this cutting edge technology.

It will be useful if the united Opposition recognises this and announces consistent policies to eliminate rural distress and create true hope for rural folks, before General Elections.

Chandrasekhar G Ranade USA