In the budget presented for 2025-26 much hullabaloo has been made about the income tax exemption limit having been raised from Rs. 7 lakhs to Rs. 12 lakhs. Only the salaried class stands to gain from this move. How many people in this country are able to earn Rs. 1 lakh per month or more than Rs. 3,000 per day? This appears to be more of a populist measure from which majority of the population will remain unaffected.
Now consider the government’s approach towards areas which impact the lives of common people. Between 2014-15, when Modi came to power, to present, 2024-25, the size of budget has grown by 11.8%, however budget expenditure on education reduced from 4.15% to 2.25% of the budget, health and family welfare budget expenditure reduced from 1.87% to 1.76% of the budget, budget expenditure on MNREGS reduced from 1.99% to 1.7% of the budget, budget expenditure on food subsidy reduced from 6.93% to 3.88% of the budget, budget expenditure on skill development reduced from 0.0006% to 0.00059% of the budget. On the contrary capital expenditure budget increased from 11.87% to 20.12%. Thus priorities of Modi government are clear. Schemes like the MNREGS or PDS, which stood the government in good stead during the Covid lockdown period have become target of cuts whereas capital expenditure which mostly benefits the private corporations and well to do in society is being given a major push. It is not clear how things like Railway station makeovers benefit the common passenger when Sleeper Class, General Class coaches are being reduced and Sleeper Class Waiting rooms are being wound up in favour of paid AC Waiting rooms? One of the reasons for the recent New Delhi station stampede is the large number of passengers were oversold tickets for the General Class whereas the coaches for this class are only a few in number in any express or mail train. It would have been better if the government, instead of building highways and expressways, which are going to be used by only the rich, relatively well off middle class and middle class - people who’ll normally travel in cars and buses, would have expanded the capacity of railways. Bus fares are now a number of times that of railways general or sleeper class and hence beyond the reach of poor and lower middle classes. The money which is being used for makeover of railway stations should have instead been used for laying more rail lines, introducing more trains with more general class and ordinary sleeper class coaches so that lower middle class and poor people could travel with dignity. However, the government is busy launching more Vande Bharat trains with all AC coaches and high fare, which the common people of this country cannot afford. It is no surprise that tickets to Vande Bharat trains are undersold. This is a stark example of the misplaced priorities of this government.
Agriculture is another area which has been ignored by the government. Whereas, it cares about the salaried middle class, which is the opinion making class, it doesn’t bother about the farmers, artisans and labourers. The government stoutly refuses to make minimum support price a legal guarantee, thereby denying the farmers a definite income. The farmer continues to be in debt. Another problem which has been consistently ignored is that of stray cattle. Since the cattle market was shut down in the name of banning cow slaughter and all buying-purchasing of cattle suspended due to mob lynching incidents of people moving with cattle or accused of having consumed beef, the cattle which are of no use of farmers are freely moving around and eating away the crops of farmers. Only the rich farmer is able to fence his fields, which too has been declared illegal if bladed wires are used. Even if the government, for example in Uttar Pradesh, has a budget to feed cattle, it doesn’t have a budget to build cow shelters at every Gram Sabha level. The cow shelters can, in any case, house not more than a couple of hundreds of cattle while thousands roam around outside. There is large scale corruption in supply of fodder and cattle die of hunger and disease inside cow shelters. The larger objective of preventing death of cows is not being achieved, anyway.
Government schools are being closed. Private schools are not willing to admit children belonging to disadvantaged groups and weaker sections under section 12(1)(c) of the Right to Education Act. Hence opportunity of education for underprivileged children is shrinking. Half the children in India do not cross the class VIII stage and less than a fourth enter colleges or universities. Yogi government takes credit for sending 5,600 labourers to Israel. India is today looked upon by the developed world as a supplier of cheap labour - whether in IT industry or manual jobs. The Prime Minister takes pride in ‘Make in India’ narrative. We have moved from ‘Made in India,’ i.e., manufacturing in India with Indian investment to ‘Make in India,’ an euphemism for exploitation of cheap Indian labour and natural resources by the MNCs. Narendra Modi is smartly able to hide the compromise that India is making behind a glittering development of underutilised expressways and airports.
What can be more shameful for the government that on one hand government schools are being shut down and on the other liquor shops are thriving, with foreign liquor shops fancier than the domestic ones. In fact excise policy is being thrust upon people, whereas government is withdrawing from education. This implies that the youth will not only remain illiterate or semi-literate but will also be a drunkards.
How does the government conceive of a Viksit Bharat with the abovementioned anti-people policies? At best we’ll be country mostly of illiterates and semi-literates and our people and resources will serve as fodder for national and multinational corporations to make profit out of, the corporations in turn will support a parasite government. So that people don’t question these policies their attention will be captured by right wing jingoism.
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*General Secretary, Socialist Party (India)
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