Elections 2019 and Economy: Match or Mismatch?

Elections 2019 have been a mega election in terms of number of rounds, number of voters and as an economist which interests me the most is the amount of money spent, though the exact numbers are difficult to calculate but an estimation carried out by Center of Media Studies, New Delhi tells that the figure is INR 50000 crores or $7 billion which is a forty percent increase from the last elections and mind you we have left Uncle Sam behind on this one. The results are as expected in terms of the party, though a bit too much in terms of seats (EVMs are being questioned though it is a discussion best left for another blog) but what is clearly a peoples' mandate for the ruling party is the vote share which is fifty-one per cent (the Left had 52 per cent in Bengal during their peak).  

Now the question that arises is that what will the ruling party do with this mandate and the homogeneity it has created in the society. We were known to be a hetrogenuous country which the policymakers subscribed to while formulating the policies. However, the binary that has been created in the present poses big obstacles in the path of economic development though the fudged growth figures may present a different story. The unemployment rate is at its highest and with the rise of crony capitalism, it is a bit difficult to fathom how these figures will be improved upon. The hegemony of international finance capital creates a false sense of forward movement which is used by the political class to show their positivity towards the economy, however, some studies in recent time shows that this finance capital stays for a maximum period of fourteen days in a country thereby not helping the economy in any which way apart from increasing the turnover. Education, Health and Agriculture have to be prioritised if the state and its ruler wants to be remembered as a visionary and just not as the 17th Prime Minster of India. 

The last two Lok Sabha elections have witnessed a Presidential style of electoring and the same centralisation has been carried to the PMO, thereby weakening the institutions. A fellow academician and an economist has written about his expectations about stregthening these institutions but this is very much against the grain of the party in power. The non state actors are backing centralisation as it furthers their goals and the proleteriat is caught in the mesh of religion and nationalism which blinds it to the economic pitfalls. The superstructure created on the hubris of current state actors may prove to be their nemesis.