A ‘political’ Budget does not help the poor

When the course of Budgets is determined more by political considerations than pure economic reason, the final exercise could be pretty lopsided with crucial needs of the population getting ignored. That in essence sums up the Union Budget presented by our honourable finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Saturday in which she doled it out big to the middle class and the salaried lot in the form of a massive Income Tax cut. The political factors we are talking about are the Delhi Assembly polls on February 5 and the Bihar polls which are a few months away.

The BJP and PM Modi in particular seem extremely keen on ousting the Aam Admi Party from power and have put their heart and soul into the campaign. And the latest lure if one may call it that, has come in the form of the IT exemption to lakhs of central government employees, who are sure to save more than a few thousands from the bonanza announced in the Budget. The BJP must be hoping that this will be enough to upset the applecart of the AAP but one will have to wait till the results on February 8 to see if Ms Sitharaman has got it right.

And there is Bihar, ruled by Nitish Kumar, considered close to PM Modi. As expected, the northern state got everything from a Makhana Board to a greenfield airport, all thanks to the fact that ‘Paltu Ram’ as he is jokingly referred to by his critics, had preferred to ignore the constant wooing by his former ally, the RJD and stick with the saffronists.

But then, a pertinent question arises? Are the goodies of a budget meant to be restricted to those in the good books of the ruling dispensation at the Centre? What happened to the federal structure and the spirit of magnanimity which ruled the hearts of politicians and finance ministers of yester years, who could see the country as a whole beyond narrow political considerations? And so we have states like Karnataka, Kerala and Tamil Nadu wondering why they were being considered ‘pariah states’ by the FM with none of their proposed projects or fund demands seeing the light of the day. This despite the fact that Karnataka contributes more than Rs 4.5 lakh crore to the central tax kitty and gets only a minute proportion in return.

It is obvious that those in power at the Centre have not yet got over the ignominious manner in which people of the state threw out the BJP from power a couple of years ago thanks to lackluster governance and a none too impressive leadership. Poverty alleviation schemes are not heard of nowadays with even the massive rural employment scheme MGNREGS, seeing its funds stagnate. Does this mean India is no longer poor and does not need state assistance to enable the vulnerable sections enjoy a reasonable standard of living? Even if we were to assume that poverty is dropping and has reached a level around 10 per cent of the population, it still means a staggering 14 crore people desperately need the assistance of the government as they are deprived of jobs and means of sustenance.

And this is a number which exceeds the population of many countries in the world. Job creation, poverty alleviation and curbing inflation - these are burning issues which need much more than lip service from the FM. How could we ever call India a developed nation if the development is visible only in the richness of a few billionaires while a large segment finds it difficult to make both ends meet? It is a question which should trouble those in governance and think tanks as we brace to live in an increasingly intolerant and unkind world.