Behind BJP's loss in 3 states: Failure to keep job promise, farm distress

Be they construction workers, or car mechanics, or those joining gangs and going after cattle traders - India's political economy offers them only palliatives, no real solutions, writes T N Ninan

By general consensus, the economic issues that have brought down three Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) governments are farmer distress and the lack of jobs. The two are linked, of course. If youngsters could get jobs in offices and factories, there would be fewer people trying to make their living on unviable farms, and their wages would supplement family incomes. But factory jobs are hard to come by, and English-speaking upper castes monopolise offices.
 
If you migrate to the city, life is hard. Villagers in cities work on construction sites: The experienced and those with some training become masons and