In a career of more than 130 years, Congress party has mastered the art of making false promises. The party won election after election by promising a poverty free life to citizens. In the 1971 general election, Indira Gandhi gave the popular slogan of ‘Garibi Hatao’ to electorates facing extreme poverty. The people trusted the party and voted them to power again and again. However after four decades the Congress president promised a ‘surgical strike on poverty’ through the NYAY scheme. So, despite the fact that Congress ruled the country for the most part and didn’t change much since Indira Gandhi came up with her popular slogan to end poverty.
The electoral plan of promises, promises and more promises in not limited to the issue of ending poverty. In every field from road connectivity, food security, employment generation and social welfare, the party promises unachievable targets. In the 2009 general election, the party promised that “in next three years every village will be connected through broadband network.” So, the party should have connected every village through broadband network by 2012. However, as usual with other promises of the Congress party’s, it could not deliver on the promises even by 2014.
In fact, the party launched the project on 25 February 2012 and just 60 gram panchayats were covered through broadband network by November 2013. “It is only 60 gram panchayats out of 2.5 lakh gram panchayats, the percentage is minuscule,” Universal Service Obligation Fund (USOF) Administrator N Ravi Shankar said to Economic Times in November 2013. So, the party failed completely to be able to deliver on the promise. But in 2019 general election manifesto, the party once again promised to “connect all the villages with broadband network by 2021.” If the Congress party actually comes to power, this promise is going to meet the same fate as the 2009 promise of broadband connection and the 1971 promise of ‘Garibi Hatao’.
On the other hand, the Modi government has been able to connect 1.10 out of 2.5 lakh villages through broadband network under the Bharat Net project. “As of January 21, 2018, optical fibre connectivity has been provided to 1,10,848 gram panchayats by laying 2,58,635 kilometres of optical fibre cable and 1,01,936 gram panchayats have been made service ready under the Bharat Net project (phase I),” said Union minister Narendra Singh Tomar. The second phase of the Bharat Net project is expected to be completed by this year.
India has taken a great leap forward in digitization since the Modi government came to power. The number of smartphone users is growing at an explosive rate and data consumption, mobile download speed, broadband subscription (mobile and fixed) have registered a significant jump. A report published by McKinsey & Company, the largest and most prestigious management consultancy firm, declared India as the second fastest digitizing economy in the world.
The Congress government has not been able deliver even a small percentage of the promised broadband connection in five years. On the other hand the Modi government is on the verge of completing the project.