India TV Chairman and Editor-in-Chief Rajat Sharma.
Narendra Modi The first budget of the third government of the Narendra Modi government was released. The impact of the Lok Sabha election results was visible in this budget of Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman. Bihar and Andhra Pradesh benefited from the support of Nitish Kumar and Chandrababu Naidu. In the budget, money was generously given to both these states. Although Bihar or Andhra Pradesh did not get the status of a special state, but through the budget, schemes worth about seventy-five thousand crores were given to both the states. Apart from this, the issues on which the opposition was cornering the Narendra Modi government were also dealt with cleverly. The MSME sector has been strengthened to create new employment opportunities, it was announced that four crore youth will be given jobs in five years, the first salary will be given by the government, the first contribution to PF will be given from the government treasury. The government will provide internship to one crore youth in the country’s 500 biggest companies for one year, the government has kept a budget of two lakh crore rupees for employment of youth, the government will build three crore new houses for the poor, in this budget of 48.2 lakh crore rupees, big announcements have been made for the poor, farmers, middle class, MSME and industry sector, that is, for all the major parts of the country’s economy. The opposition termed this budget of Nirmala Sitharaman as Kursi Bachao Budget.
Just yesterday, the government had made it clear that under the current rules, Bihar cannot get the status of a special state, but Nirmala Sitharaman made up for the lack of special status by making several big announcements for Bihar in her budget. A provision of Rs 26 thousand crore has been made for road construction in Bihar. Patna-Purnia Expressway, Buxar-Bhagalpur Expressway, Bodh Gaya-Rajgir-Vaishali and Darbhanga Sparsh projects will be built with this amount. Bihar has been given Rs 11 thousand 500 crore for flood control. Apart from this, a provision of Rs 21 thousand 400 crore has been made in the budget for setting up a power plant in Bhagalpur. A new two-lane bridge will be built on the Ganga river in Buxar. Nirmala Sitharaman said that Vishnupad Corridor will be built in Gaya, provisions have been made in the budget for building new medical colleges and airports and for the development of tourism. Opposition leaders are upset with the importance given to Bihar and Andhra Pradesh in the budget. Leaders like Rahul Gandhi, Mamta Banerjee, Akhilesh Yadav, Uddhav Thackeray called this budget as save chair budget. Mallikarjun Kharge said that Modi made his two friends happy for the chair but forgot all the other states. Even the BJP ruled states did not get money in the budget. The Finance Minister said that those who are calling the budget as save chair should not forget that his alliance of 37 parties could win only 230 seats while BJP alone got 240 seats.
Chandrababu Naidu and Nitish Kumar were the happiest with the budget. Naidu thanked Prime Minister Narendra Modi for taking care of the people of Andhra Pradesh while Nitish Kumar said that he had been fighting for special status for Bihar for 20 years but when the government told him that special status cannot be granted, he demanded special financial help for Bihar from the central government which the government accepted and fulfilled its promise in the budget. Bihar will definitely benefit from this. There is no doubt that an attempt has been made to find a solution to Bihar’s problems in the budget and Bihar’s politics has also been managed. Bihar has been given much more than what it could have received by getting special status. Bihar got the most. For example, the condition of roads in Bihar is bad, the condition of airports in Bihar is also bad. Today, the gift of a new modern airport has been received. Electricity production in Bihar is low so a power plant was given in Pirpainti. Industries could not flourish in Bihar, its solution was found through industrial corridor. The condition of education in Bihar is bad, provision has been made for new colleges, there is a shortage of doctors, so new medical colleges will be built. The provisions made in the budget will benefit the people of Bihar and both JDU and BJP will benefit from political perspective.
A special package of Rs 15 thousand crores was announced for the development of Andhra Pradesh’s new capital Amaravati. A promise was made to provide full support in completing Andhra Pradesh’s Polavaram irrigation project. A special package was also announced for building an industrial corridor between Visakhapatnam and Chennai. When the opposition called the special package for Andhra and Bihar a Kursi Bachao campaign, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said that those who are calling it a Kursi Bachao budget, even together they could not win as many seats as BJP alone has, how can such people call it a Kursi Bachao budget. The Chief Ministers of Telangana, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka and Kerala are upset with Andhra Pradesh getting priority in the budget. There is a Congress government in Telangana, so Chief Minister Revanth Reddy has every right to register his protest, but as far as Andhra Pradesh is concerned, during the UPA rule when Telangana was formed by dividing Andhra Pradesh, a special package was promised to Andhra Pradesh, and the Centre assured help for the development of the new capital Amaravati. The Modi government has fulfilled that promise. This is a good thing. It is true that special provisions have been made for Bihar and Andhra Pradesh in the budget. The reason for this is also the support of Nitish Kumar and Chandrababu Naidu.
If Modi made his government’s supporters happy, what is wrong in it? Will anyone try to anger his government’s supporters? Because as far as the opposition parties are concerned, they cannot be expected to support this budget. Actually, it is not right to divide the central government’s budget according to the states, because all the schemes of the central government benefit everyone. But whether it is Mamata Banerjee, Revanth Reddy, Bhagwant Mann, Siddaramaiah, Sukhwinder Singh Sukhu, MK Stalin, or Hemant Soren, it is useless to expect them to say that Narendra Modi’s government gave a lot to their state. These are the leaders of the opposition parties. Wherever there are governments of the opposition parties, they will speak against the Modi government. Earlier, when BJP was in the opposition, BJP leaders used to do the same. There is nothing new in this. Anyway, whatever government is in the center, it also takes care of its political interests through the budget. Narendra Modi did the same by taking care of Bihar and Andhra Pradesh but it is also important to see that Narendra Modi has not only made his allies happy but also tried to rectify the issues like unemployment which had caused loss to BJP in the Lok Sabha elections.
Plans have been made to provide employment to the youth in big companies. For this, the government will provide assistance to new employees and their employers. Congress did not like this announcement of the government either. Mallikarjun Kharge called the Modi government’s budget a copy paste of the Congress manifesto. Kharge said that the Modi government has neither any thinking nor vision of its own, the government stole the things from the Congress manifesto and presented them in the budget. It is important to understand that India has the third largest start-up ecosystem in the world. To promote start-ups, the government made a big announcement in the budget. Angel tax imposed on small companies raising capital has been abolished. The government will build 12 new industrial parks. Transit plans will be made for 14 big cities. All this will create new centers of economic development in the country. This time the government has made a slight change in the income tax slab and increased the limit of standard deduction. But the benefit of the change in income tax slab will be available only to those who have chosen the new income tax system. No announcement has been made in this budget for those who are paying taxes as per the old tax system.
Big announcements were also made for farmers in the budget. There is a provision of more than one and a half lakh crore rupees in the budget for agriculture and related sectors. The government’s emphasis is on increasing production, promoting natural farming and making the country self-reliant in terms of pulses and oilseeds production. Apart from this, clusters for growing vegetables will be developed at various places in the country to control the prices of vegetables. One crore farmers will be taught natural farming in the next two years. But farmer leader Rakesh Tikait says that the schemes brought for farmers will benefit the corporates and not the farmers. What Rakesh Tikait said is less about farmers and more about politics. As far as politics regarding the budget is concerned. On one hand, Congress is saying that Nirmala Sitharaman copied and pasted their manifesto. If the things of their manifesto have been included in the budget, then how can you say that there is nothing in the budget? This budget is useless? One thing was said that this budget is a budget to save the chair. What Congress had written in its manifesto, the promises of instant cash transfer made by Rahul Gandhi during the elections, were those also to get the chair or not? If BJP took care of its political interests along with the welfare of the people, then what is wrong in that? (Rajat Sharma)
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