As Modi Sarkar and its cohorts have already taken control of most of the large and powerful media conglomerates in India, one will find it most difficult to locate a critical account of the Budget 2014. Most of these media – print as well as TV - was busy singing paeans on the budget. Everywhere in these media there are accounts of how businessmen, the corporates and the multi-rich find the budget to be the one that will “take the country forward.”
Network 18 (of which CNN IBN, CNBC etc. are part) is already being controlled by corporate giants who had unequivocally rendered all the support for BJP’s election campaign. We now know where the fidelity of Zee network lies with after seeing what happened to an article in the online magazine DNA (controlled by Zee network) that showered grave criticism on the new BJP President. The Hindu, previously known as a predominantly leftist newspaper, has suddenly jumped over the fence and is sitting comfortably with the rightists, after the new management took over. Therefore in the mainstream media you will only find adulations and appreciations about the budget. In such circumstances many independent online magazines and individual blogs have gained a lot of significance insofar as finding a critical analysis of the budget is concerned. Hence this writer will also only focus on the cons of the budget; for the pros one can anyways read any of the popular newspapers of our day.
No tax surcharge on the super-rich: Amidst talks of fiscal prudence and reduction in fiscal deficit, the budget of Arun Jaitley plainly missed a great opportunity to increase the revenue receipts of the government by increasing the tax surcharge on the super-rich. When the present government in general and the budget 2014 in particular talk about reducing the fiscal deficit by cutting down the subsidies, it is curious that no one is speaking about increasing the revenue by slapping an increase in tax surcharge on the super-rich of our country. The rightists in the government today behave much like George Carlin pointed out about the conservatives in the United States. He had said – “Conservatives say if you don’t give the rich more money, they will lose their incentive to invest. Then they say as for the poor, they’ve lost all incentive because we’ve given them too much money.”
FDI in defence and insurance sectors: Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) has been Mr. Jaitley’s favourite catch phrase in his budget speech. Opening up of the strategically important defence sector to FDI could prove to be quite fatal in the long run. In the insurance sector also the government has decided to increase FDI investment limit to 49% from 26%. It is another matter that without management control available to them with 49% share, how many foreign companies would really look at investing huge amount of money in these sectors.
It is also a known fact that most of the money stashed away in foreign banks as unaccounted black money comes back to our country in the form of FDI. So by increasing the FDI cap to 49%, Modi Sarkar is effectively helping the money hoarders.
200 crore for a statue, 100 crore for women’s safety: In a classic example of a government’s misplaced priorities Arun Jaitley has allocated 200 crores for the statue of Sardar Patel in Gujarat, one of Modi’s pet projects, while allocating only 100 crores for women’s safety. BJP and its ideological backbone the Sangh Parivar have always been at the forefront in exhibiting their pseudo-nationalism with such absurd acts. Had the Iron Man of India, Sardar Patel, been alive now, he would have slapped the men who created such a proposal in a national budget when the nation is facing one of the worst fiscal crises in its history.
No significant increase in income tax exemption limit: BJP has turned out to be the biggest U-turn party in the history of our nation. During the election campaign BJP promised that they will increase the tax exemption limit to 5 lakhs per annum. Even the present day Finance Minister Arun Jaitley had asked the then government to increase the limit to 5 lakhs. However when he presented the budget he increased the exemption limit to just 2.5 lakhs. By extending the exemption limit to 5 lakhs the government would have put more money in the pockets of the common man, thereby increasing the domestic consumption, which would have had a positive impact on the economy.
Nothing for primary education: One of the glaring omissions of the budget speech has been primary education. When there has been allocation for five new IITs and five new IIMs, there has been nothing for primary education or improving the quality of education in the country. When you increase the number of higher education institutions, you also need to worry about maintaining, if not improving, the quality of faculty in those august institutions of our country. However the budget is quite mum on that factor as well.
No proposal on bringing back black money: Narendra Modi had been quite vocal about bringing back black money stashed away by Indians in foreign banks. However when the budget was delivered there was no concrete proposal in it about how to bring back that black money to India.
No concrete proposal for containing inflation: Together with worsening fiscal deficit and slumping growth, higher inflation has been much talked about economic factor during the election campaign. The BJP government that got an enormous mandate to find solution for the grave problems that Indians face, has done nothing up to now to control the price rise. There has been no concrete proposal in the budget to control inflation. The many decisions that the government has taken till now has only resulted in an increase of inflation; may it be the increase in freight charges in the railways, or increasing the import price of sugar or the increase in fuel prices.
Many schemes named after Sangh Parivar ideologists: Saffronisation of the government activity seems to be on top of the agenda for the ruling BJP, if the names of some of the new schemes offer any clue. Many new schemes have been unveiled that have the names of RSS and BJP idols like Deen Dayal Upadhyay, Shyama Prasad Mukherjee, and Madan Mohan Malviya.
Whenever someone criticises the present government, the supporters of the government immediately come up with an argument that 60 days is not enough time to judge a government. It is certainly true that 60 days is not enough time to judge a government on its performance, but it is certainly enough time to judge a government on its intentions. And if those intentions of the government are anything to go by then it is certainly not going to be good times for the common man, the aam aadmi, but is certainly good times for the corporates and for the foreign investors, the khaas aadmi. The “ache din’ that Narendra Modi promised seems to be too far away.
Image Courtesy: The Hindu
