The National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government is banking on its marque schemes such as the Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojana (PMUY), which provides free cooking gas connections to poor families, to put it on a home run in the general elections.
Not surprisingly, the political messaging around the scheme hailed as NDA’s version of the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS) has gone into an overdrive. From finding a mention in President Ram Nath Kovind’s speech to the joint session of Parliament and finance minister Piyush Goyal’s budget speech to vice-president M. Venkaiah Naidu and Lok Sabha speaker Sumitra Mahajan marking the milestones by handing over the gas connections, the optics around the scheme have been carefully crafted. Add to these an Ujjwala Utsav (festival) and an anthem (Ujjwala Bharat Ujjwala by Kailash Kher)—and the intent of the government becomes amply clear.
