Ujjwala scheme is the defining legacy of Modi government. It has changed the way rural people in India cooked and create loyal constituency of women voters for Bharatiya Janata Party. Other welfare schemes like construction of toilets and housing construction too have been worked with improved and fast delivery.
However, the appreciable welfare programmes is not enough as these have failed to add to economic growth of such scale that could create jobs for young people in the rural incomes bracket.
Rural India is looking for a quality of life that could commensurate with modern standard. Modi government seems to be now at fix just couple of months ahead of the 2019 Lok Sabha elections.
For BJP the time is too short to realign economic paradigm and address structural issues in the election campaigns. Amid such situations the Ujjwala may ramp up politics of welfarism.
In 2014 Lok Sabha elections ‘vikas’ was the trump card for BJP. In 2019 the party may play ‘welfare’ card, but it is yet to understand if this will be enough for aspirational, impatient and changing India.
It is to note here the BJP mocked employment guarantee scheme of United Progressive Alliance (UPA) in last general elections. Many believed the Modi-Sarkar would purely focus on growth and not on distribution. It would focus on urban and semi-urban areas and take unfinished reforms further.
However, political and ideological purposes worked differently for the party and it understood bulk of population lived in rural India. It started preventing ‘India Shining’ campaign of 2004 and tried to expand among poor and marginalized India
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