"How and when will this culture of false promises end?" a Congress spokesperson recently asked.
As Prime Minister Narendra Modi today while addressing the nation from the Red Fort laid out a vision for India to become a developed nation by 2047, his past promises for India in 2022 resurfaced on social media. Goals he set for the India of 2022 regarding housing, farmers' income and other issues were discussed, with some saying the goalpost has been shifted to 2047 without any accounting of promises made for 2022.
While interacting with beneficiaries of the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana Gramin (PMAY-G) in June 2018, the PM said the government was working to ensure a home for every Indian by 2022.
"The Awas Yojana is not merely about brick and mortar. This scheme is about a better quality of life and dreams coming true. We are working towards ensuring that every Indian has a home by 2022 when India marks 75 years since Independence," he said while talking to the Awas Yojana beneficiaries via the NaMo app.
However, Ministry of Housing data shows that even under the urban housing scheme, just 61 lakhs -- half of the sanctioned 1.22 crore -- houses have been completed.
In another promise from the same year, the PM while interacting with farmers, had promised to double their incomes by 2022.
"Because of the government's efforts, farmers were now "chinta mukt" or worry-free, protected from nature's fury by insurance schemes such as the Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana," he had said, reiterating the promise of doubling incomes and pointing to the increased budgetary allocation to agriculture during his term.
According to National Sample Survey Office (NSSO) data, the average farmers' income in 2014 was Rs 6,426 which went up to Rs 10,218 in 2021. Another research report -- by SBI -- has claimed that farmers' income has grown in the range of 1.3-1.7 times in 2022 from the 2018 levels on average.
Opposition parties have often attacked the PM, accusing him of failing to fulfil his ambitious promises.
Congress spokesperson Gaurav Vallabh had recently reminded the Modi government about its promises for 2022 - including that every Indian will have a house by 2022, farmers' income will double by 2022, bullet trains will be operational by 2022, and the economy will be worth USD 5 trillion.
"How and when will this culture of false promises end? Is the PM going to give new deadlines of promises made for the year 2022 using smoke and mirrors culture?" Mr Vallabh had asked.
In his last Independence Day speech before the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, the PM had said that by 2022, India will send a "son or daughter" to the space with the national flag in hand.
In 2018, then Union Railway Minister Piyush Goyal claimed the dream of India's first high-speed bullet train which would run between Ahmedabad and Mumbai was close to becoming a reality and operations for this ambitious project will commence as soon as 2022.
However, Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw in June said they are confident of achieving the target of running the country's first bullet train between Surat and Bilimora in Gujarat in 2026.
The government has attributed the delay to troubles in land acquisition and the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic.