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Home » Transcript: 12 Years of BJP: Progress or Propaganda? – Anish Gawande vs Pradeep Bhandari  

Transcript: 12 Years of BJP: Progress or Propaganda? – Anish Gawande vs Pradeep Bhandari  

EDITOR’S NOTE: In this Think School debate moderated by host Ganeshprasad Sridharan, BJP spokesperson Pradeep Bhandari and opposition spokesperson Anish Gawande clash over whether the party’s 12 years in power have delivered genuine progress for India or mostly propaganda. They examine key areas including the economy, infrastructure, education, healthcare, poverty reduction, and national security, weighing data on achievements against persistent challenges. The discussion ultimately asks what the real benchmarks for India’s success should be after more than a decade of BJP rule.  Read the full transcript of the debate below:

Opening Statements

GANESHPRASAD SRIDHARAN: Ladies and gentlemen, the BJP has been governing this country for 12 years now. 12 years is not a honeymoon period — 12 years is a verdict period. 12 years is enough for the excuses to die and for real progress to show up.

There are two schools of thought. The optimists believe that India under the BJP has taken the most revolutionary leaps in its history — because the airports have doubled, railways have been electrified, the poor have been insured, manufacturing is booming, highways are being built everywhere, and toilets, houses, gas connections, and bank accounts have all been provided at a scale that no other country has been able to match.

On the other side, the pessimists believe this revolution exists only in photographs. They believe the infrastructure is failing, inflation is crushing the poor, and health and education are practically a joke in this country — that it’s all just marketing, marketing, marketing. Some even say India has learned one thing well: how to photograph development better than it shows development.

The truth lies somewhere in between, which is why, to debate this topic, we have Pradeep Bhandari, who represents the BJP, and Anish Gawande, who represents the opposition. This debate is divided into six pillars: education, healthcare, poverty upliftment, national security, infrastructure, and economy.

Let’s start with Pradeep. Pradeep, why do you think the BJP has done an excellent job in the last 12 years?

PRADEEP BHANDARI: On 15th August 1947, when the country became independent, the concept of “Tryst with Destiny” was discussed. Within that, two pillars were laid out: equality of opportunity and poverty eradication. The founding fathers of the Indian Constitution and the freedom movement believed in an India that could realize its full potential.

So what shift has happened since 2014? Before 2014, a youth living in India was looking at a country suffering from a twin deficit — not a shining spot, but one pulling the global economy downward. Eight hundred million people had no health insurance. Thirty-five to forty percent of the country was below the poverty line. Despite 70 years of independence, tap water connections had not reached the majority of rural households.

A youth with no family background and no entitlement did not have the support system to dream big. There was no Indian dream before 2014, because if a young person wanted to start a business, they had to navigate a License Raj. That era began with news of corruption and double-digit inflation. So the tryst with destiny our forefathers envisioned — equality of opportunity and poverty eradication — despite every prime minister speaking about it, was never executed on the ground.

Now look at what has happened after 2014. If a poor household’s child is born anywhere in this country, they know there is a permanent roof over their house, because this government has provided 40 million households with a permanent home. They know a permanent road has reached their house, and that their bank account is open — imagine that for 70 years, people did not even have a bank account. They also know their health insurance is being taken care of by the government, up to 500,000 rupees.

So a youth born in this country to a poor or middle-class family after 2014 did not have to worry about who would take care of their needs, because the government took care of it. Growth is about the realization of aspiration, and that has changed.

Imagine a scenario where the world is going through instability — no place in the world is experiencing an era of stability and security. But this stability does not mean the government is in stasis; it means we can dream to do the impossible. This is why Naxal terrorism has completely vanished and is now confined to only two districts, which was once a huge problem for this country. This is why Article 370 was abrogated — violence in Jammu and Kashmir has come down, and youth from Jammu and Kashmir are now making it onto the Indian cricket team and dreaming big.

Whether it is security, which is the fundamental job of the state; whether it is taking care of the poor, which is the fundamental job of the state; or whether it is providing opportunities for the youth to dream big, which is the fundamental job of the state — the Narendra Modi government has, over the last 12 years, been able to deliver on all of it.

GANESHPRASAD SRIDHARAN: Beautiful. Anish?

ANISH GAWANDE: That’s the same opening statement we heard in 2014. In 2014, India was sold a dream. Acche din was the slogan an entire generation of young Indians — myself included — grew up on. When Prime Minister Modi got that historic mandate, I was a little upset — I was running an election campaign — but I was still hopeful about the future ahead, because young people in India were sold that hope. They were told an older model of growth that had failed under previous governments was going to be replaced by good governance.

But 12 years later, I’m almost 30, and the BJP has won three consecutive elections. Youth unemployment is at 25.9%. Household savings have fallen to a 47-year low, as of 2023. Real rural wages — wages adjusted for inflation — have fallen between 0.6% and 1.4%, depending on farm or non-farm income.