When Congressman Shashi Tharoor complained in a tweet once that the BJP had merely changed the names of 23 Congress schemes, and said that Prime Minister Narendra Modi was running a “name-changing” government and not a “game-changing one”, his claim was put to the test.
Renaming and Rebranding: The Story of BJP’s Policies and Schemes (thewire.in)
It was found that he was right about 19 schemes. It turned out that the Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana was the UPA’s Basic Savings Bank Deposit Account; the Beti Bachao, Beti Padhao Yojana was the same as the National Girl Child Day programme; the Deen Dayal Upadhyaya Gram Jyoti Yojana was the Rajiv Grameen Vidyutikaran Yojana; the 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 the Congress’ 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 Mr Modi’s flagship “Make in India” was merely the National Manufacturing Policy (NMP) under a new name.
And it was not mere renaming; the entire policy framework in many cases was also a copy-paste job, as a comparison of the department for promotion of industry and internal trade’s press note (2011) and the Make in India website page on national manufacturing showed.
by Aakar Patel
21/11/2023