Narendra Modi's Flip-Flops have begun ...

In this continually updating article I am going to keep track of the flip-flops of Narendra Modi's election and other promises. He and his BJP party has already began the flip-flop journey.

1. Black money: Before and during election Modi promised to bring black money back to India - some saying within 100 days (Baba Ramdev here claiming it, and Modi was in full support of Ramdev during elections) - of its government's formation (see here, here (I must say the speech of Modi in this video is the worst form of lies, socialism and propaganda of using peoples' "envy" to come to power!, and here).

And now after 6 months in power when he failed to do anything substantive about black money, his party FM is denying any such promises. They are now flip-flopping over this issue. Here's what Venkaiah Naidu recently said in parliament: "Listing out the measures taken by the BJP government to deal with the black money menace, Naidu said whenever 100 days is said, it means "action will be initiated within 100 days". The linguistic juggling of taking out different meaning has already began to fool the public once more.

2. Price inflation: Modi and his BJP party promised to control price inflation when came to power. First of all, a promise to control inflation is like a promise to rob/loot people, especially poor, of this country in a controlled manner every year i.e., instead of looting 10% of annual income they will only loot 6%!!! Anyone with a basic knowledge of economics knows that inflation is a hidden tax and taxation is nothing but a nice name of robbery (see this, and this) So, like any other government, Modi and his government will rob and pillage us daily.

Now, after spending almost 200 days in office, is Modi or his government serious about bringing down the prices? The recent episode of rapidly declining prices of crude oil (see figure 1 below) in the international market tells us that instead of reducing the prices of petrol, diesel, which are essential energy consumption components of any household, and other crude oil related items, Modi and his government is busy filling their own coffers by imposing higher excise and other duties (i.e., taxes) on oil companies! Here is the news story:

Taking advantage of the resulting fall in pump prices, his government has raised factory gate duties on petrol and diesel twice in the last month. That means state coffers, and not drivers, will benefit to the tune of $1.6 billion this fiscal year and nearly $5 billion next year.

Figure 1: International Crude Oil Prices

 So, the major benefit of this falling crude oil prices is going to Modi and his government, and not to people whom Modi promised during and after election of low prices of everything. Remember, he himself has done nothing in India to reduce prices. And when he is getting some help from the intentional markets of fulfilling his promise of reducing prices of petrol, diesel, gas etc., substantially, Modi, in fact, is busy robbing us of our purchasing power. No politician have ever fulfilled or can fulfill the promises he made to people because those promises are empty rhetoric to fool the public. Their actions will always be contrary to what they are saying.