The first 100 days of the second innings of the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government have been disappointing for the common man and its performance has been below par, say political parties.
'The performance has been pathetic. The government has failed to deliver both on the economic front and the issues of country's security,' G.V.L. Narasimha Rao, member of Bharatiya Janata Party ( BJP) national executive, told IANS.
Rao said the government had not been able to handle the drought situation and price rise and the 'worst hit has been the common man,' on whose welfare talk the Congress came to power.
The views are echoed by the Communist Party of India (CPI) MP Gurudas Dasgupta. According to Dasgupta, the performance of the UPA government has been 'unsatisfactory and not up to the expectation of common man'.
Manmohan Singh government took oath on May 22 for the second consecutive time following a sweeping victory in the April-May Lok Sabha polls.
The government's emphasis has been on infrastructure development, schemes for the poor like the National Rural Employment Guarantee Programme, stimulus packages to pull the economy out of the global slowdown and deal with the drought situation and spiraling prices of essential commodities.
However, the Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) feels that the focus of the government has been the big corporate houses rather then the farmers and working class.
'The government has been unable to control the rising prices of essential commodities, which are becoming unbearable for the common man, while concessions are given to big business houses,' CPI-M polit-buro member M.K. Pandhe said.
Pandhe also said the major beneficiaries of the schemes of the present government has been the upper strata of the society rather then the common which has been further pushed to the periphery of the society.
Kamal Akhter, Rajya Sabha MP of Samajwadi Party that has extended parliamentary support to the government, said: 'The government has failed to handle the problem of unemployment.'
Political parties are also critical of the government the way it has handled the issue of security.
BJP vice-president Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi accused the government of 'surrendering the national interest' with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh signing a joint statement with Pakistan in Egypt last month delinking terror from the composite dialogue with Islamabad and also included a controversial reference to trouble-hit Balochistan.
'On the issue of security, the government has taken mainly administrative steps without taking state governments into confidence and lacks people's participation without which it would be difficult to counter the problem of terrorism,' Pandhe explained.
However, according to historian Ramachandra Guha, 100 days could not be a yardstick to judge a government's performance.
'I am not sure if we can evaluate the government on what they have achieved and what they have not. Many things have happened and policies have been framed. I will give them 50-50,' Guha told IANS.
The criticism notwithstanding, the government is flagging certain decisions, like setting aside a whopping Rs.391 billion ($8 billion) for the UPA's National Rural Employment Guarantee Programme.
Also, the government saw through a historic Right to Education Bill that ensures free and compulsory education to children aged between six and 14 years, ushered a revamped Companies Bill and unveiled a draft direct tax code that will replace the nearly five-decade-old Income Tax Act.
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