The absence of data is not about academics and researchers losing out. It is actively helping the ruling party carry on with its politics without any roadblocks and preventing basic questions being asked of it. https://thewire.in/government/an-era-of-darkness-how-no-data-helps-bjps-politics
In a post-truth world, as opposed to facts, the effectiveness of your politics is weighed by ‘vibes’.
This is not because facts don’t matter but because they have great power to influence the shape of politics and claims. Suppressing data, ensuring that they are not publicised when they emerge, are important to cloud the air with baseless assertions.
In at least four arenas, the absence of data is helping run a particular kind of politics.
Population ‘explosion’ bogey will explode if facts are available - The first proposition of India being the most populous nation is itself not established by an Indian agency, as the postponed Census 2021 is yet to be conducted and there is no word about when it will be held.
More so, the fall in the TFR is levelling off across communities and this trend has been at play since 2001. The steepest fall in fertility is indicated across Muslim communities in India and the figures out so far have made clear that fertility has very little to do with religion. But if facts like these emerge and authoritatively so through a Census, then where would hateful propaganda like asking Hindu families to “have three children” and sustaining falsehoods about rapidly increasing Muslim numbers go? Feeding a fear of the Muslim demographic being out of control is an essential part of Hindutva politics.
Tall claims on ration but feeding fewer numbers?
The BJP-led government has made much of its ration scheme. It has projected its responsibilities to provide food following an Act passed by parliament in 2013 falsely, as the personal munificence of PM Modi. But the basis of the total numbers being fed is the 14-year-old, 2011 Census. The Additional Solicitor General Aishwarya Bhati, told the Supreme Court in December 2024, that the NFSA had 81.35 crore eligible beneficiaries.
But this could be a serious under-estimation. Lawyers arguing for the Right to Food campaign say that there could be as many as 10 crore eligible (i.e. hungry) Indians being left out.
No poverty numbers since 2012
Poverty numbers, after 2011-12 remain a mystery.
The absence of fresh data, not estimations relying on inflation to confuse the picture, allows politics misrepresenting claims to gain ground.
by Seema Chishti
11/02/2025