Price of the Modi Years

by Aakar Patel

When Congressman Shashi Tharoor complained in a tweet in 2017 that the BJP had merely changed the names of 23 Congress schemes, and said that Modi’s was a ‘name-changing’ government and not a ‘game-changing one’, his claim was put to the test. It was found that he was right about 19.32 It turned out that the Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana was the UPA’s Basic Savings Bank Deposit Account; Beti Bachao, Beti Padhao Yojana was the same as the National Girl Child Day programme; Deen Dayal Upadhyay Gram Jyoti Yojana was the Rajiv Grameen Vidyutikaran Yojana; Atal Mission for Rejuvenation and Urban Transformation was the Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission renamed; the BJP’s neem-coated urea was the same as Congress’s neem-coated urea; the Soil Health Card scheme was the National Project on Management of Soil Health and Fertility; the Atal Pension Yojana was the Swavalamban Yojana; and even Make in India was the National Manufacturing Policy (NMP) under a new name.