For the 109-minutes of innings played by the BJP government put forward by Piyush Goyal, a last stunt before the country subsides into the phase of the election ruckus, the Financial Budget of 2019 feels like a long drawn weapon brought out by our Prime Minister-led party, powerful enough to keep the citizens clinging onto oscillating hopes. The entire nation sat glued to their TV screens in anticipation of this dramatic spectacle, which is too real to be ignored. After all, it is their financial fortunes that were being juggled with.
My home too portrayed a similar picture as I observed my parents hastily sideline all their errands and sit down with a steaming cup of tea that surprisingly drew parallel to the fate of our country – boiling on the brink of ‘populist yojanas’ and ‘agendas’ before it is put up for trail again. My father, being a middle-class retired professional, was too worried that this new budget would squander with his savings that he has accumulated with great hard work. But the BJP government knows the tricks of its game well.
When the day’s events finally rolled the dice, the nation was astonished in its manner of presentation. Very typical of a faltering ruling party that tries to forcibly justify its loopholes, the budget speech stressed more and more on the optics in a high profile way while its efficiency towards the economy fell secondary.
Beginning with a sweeping promise of an income support to “vulnerable landholding farmer families, having cultivable land upto 2 hectares” to be given Rs. 6000 per year, it aims to benefit about 120 million families. However, in the last five years, the contribution of the farm sector in the GDP shrunk alarmingly, falling bellow 15% – a massive distress for the farmers drowning in debt. In such scenario, will giving money to them warrant a boost of strength to their economy? As Yogendra Yadav tweets later in the day, “The ‘historic’ 6,000 rupees a year for a family of 5 translates to Rs. 3.3 a day,” this scheme is nothing but a political mockery of all those who seek fair employment through a fair price.
'The ₹ 6,000 a year for farmers' announcement basically means that in the next 3 months, Rs.20,000 crores will be spent by the govt in buying farmer votes for the BJP
But people know these schemes are merely to buy votes. These last minute tricks don't work!
— Yogendra Yadav (@_YogendraYadav) February 1, 2019
And the irony of the situation? Rahul Gandhi, who first spearheaded this idea of a farm loan waiver and fired an opening salvo of minimum income guarantee as his believed attempt in garnering voters, was swiftly snatched away from under his eye by the BJP government to upscale their own credibility. Oh what a pity!
Despite the scheme being rightly put into action from December 2018, whether it successfully addresses the structural problems of the farmers or not, the government has at least satisfied itself by appeasing a significant section of the masses, a huge weightage on ‘their’ side of the fence in the upcoming elections.
Another game changer is the pension scheme for unorganised workers who will receive a sum of Rs. 3,000 a month when they are more than 60 years old! This is a complete travesty of the actual requirement of universal pensions that comes with minimum wages as deserved by the people from the government, another failed result of being too preoccupied in organising an election manifesto of their own.
As the entire Lok Sabha erupted in loud cheers, thumping tables and lusty chants of ‘Modi’,’Modi’, the Finance Minister then went for a short but brave span of validating the achievements of the ruling party, their contribution towards sanitation, rural industrialisation, the development of cities and towns, the future of investment in renewable energy, a Swachh Bharat Mission besides endorsing the mythical image of a digital India which Modi summed up as ‘just a the trailer of the budget’.
But before the atmosphere could get sulky and the narrative rambling, Goyal caught everyone’s attention by drawing the last card up his sleeve – a tax relief policy for the middle classes. “Individual taxpayers with annual income upto 5 lakh rupees to get full tax rebate.” In addition, the standard deduction of tax on salaried people to be increased from Rs. 40,000 to Rs. 50,000. Also, the GST rates for daily items of usage will be lowered resulting in an estimated relief of Rs. 80,000 crore rupees for the bracket of middle income consumers. The chant of praises for Modi was beginning to glamourize the aura of the house. The ball has hit the goalpost and nothing can beat the truth of this victorious moment.
Such a clever gimmick isn’t it? When, just days ago, the media tried to malign the current government’s failed attempts in raising the employment level, who knew that Modi would tackle it so skillfully through a vengeance based budget. In a data presented by the NSSO, it compared past figures to that of 2017-2018 and concluded that the unemployment level had touched the highest for both males and females in a four decades span, the public eye did not miss the fact that the government had kept significant details under wraps. Moreover, with the gambit of Demonetisation, the entire economy was brought to haywire, largely affecting the very middle classes who were sandwiched between expectations and reality. But did anything stop the BJP government from conducting this self proclaimed prime pumping exercise?
And the interim budget, or whatever it is called, for a government that has only a few more months left to its tenure, it certainly crosses the boundaries of constitutional propriety. Doesn’t it speak plenty when we see a departing government struggling to win back power by making sweeping promises and imposing amendments entirely directed towards the much neglected sections for the past five years. So many benefits for the middle class in one single budget – is it a dream or sarcasm?
While the aspects of education, healthcare, creation of jobs and poverty remain untouched, ‘gau mata’ doesn’t fail to acquire the holy emblem of welfare, a typical BJP tactic to gratify the Hindu constituency in the name of animal husbandry initiative. Unfortunately, in all this hullabaloo, the actual fiscal stance of the Modi government lingers opaque. And we wonder whether all these promises will grind to the dust, caught up in the whirlwind of propaganda and become smoke and mirror once again.