Budget skips poor

If there was one comment which aptly summed up the Union Budget presented by Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, it was by veteran politician P, Chidambaram who has presented many a budget in his heydays. ’’Most capitalist speech to be ever read by an FM,’’ quipped PC.

The Congressman that he is, Chidambaram‘s view should no doubt be taken with a bit of salt but doesn’t he have a point? Is there anything really for the poor in this mammoth fiscal exercise at a time when the pandemic has made destructive inroads into the lives of every Indian, wrecking means of livelihood, stealing his dear and near ones and pushing him to the brink of starvation?

What came as a big shock was the massive cut in the budgetary allocation by 25% for MGNREGS, a job scheme which offers a ray of hope providing 100 days of employment to an adult in a rural household. This has happened at a time when enrollment of households in the scheme is as high as 2.7 crore because of the pandemic which has pushed migrant workers who shifted to cities and town for work, back to villages.

The pandemic may be on the wane but nothing has really changed with people fearful of stepping out of their houses or sending their kith and kin for jobs. Industries have closed, small businesses are on the verge of bankruptcy. Couldn’t the FM held out a ray of hope to these hapless victims of a scourge which is none of their doing by coming up with a scheme for their succour? Or is the budget only meant to tweak the tax structure for the rich and powerful, even leaving out the middle class, already overburdened by rising prices?

Crypto currency, the digital rupee, the PM Awaz Yojana, the Capex push, the ECLGS scheme- there is no dearth of high sounding promises in the budget but will the common man see anything coming his way? Even the hospitality sector which saw its fortunes plummeting after people cancelled their tour and travel plans and stopped venturing out, has termed the budget disappointing.

Jobs have been lost, hunger looms and poverty is knocking at the doors of millions across the country. Shouldn’t Ms Sitharaman have adopted a more down to earth approach and dealt with the urgent priorities-joblessness and falling incomes rather than going overboard with her digitisation and disinvestment plans including one for LIC, the public sector behemoth?

The only sector beaming is big industry and the Sensex has aptly reflected the FM’s bent of mind galloping by over 800 points. ‘Hail the rich, hell to the poor’ seems to be written all over the budget which has sadly left the common man to fend for himself in the worst of circumstances. This is obviously a budget which does not fit in with the times.