Indian voters not likely to take the bait.
By Rajiv Theodore
NEW DELHI: The general elections are round the corner and the politicians have sensed the mood of the people, maybe a bit late as usual. Nevertheless, the UPA-2 government wooed the middle class vote through a string of populist announcements presented in an interim budget Monday.
Without giving any sops to the rich minority, the Congress led government aimed at the middle class, one of the largest vote banks and a critical mass during elections, by making cars, two-wheelers, ACs, fridges, computers, digital cameras cheaper.
It also gave into the long standing demand of the country’s armed forces by favoring the ‘One –rank, one pension’ scheme that would now benefit about three million ex-servicemen. But being an interim budget, the government’s hands are tied to a great extent and they had to limit their favors too. So taxes were left untouched.
But this olive branch held out to the people now seem to be loose change when you see the scenario in perspective, of the economy’s performance that went on a steady decline for the last decade or so.
It has been a period of despair apart from the short lived euphoria when the economist Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh stepped in for the first time, and many had huge hopes pinned on him to take the country to the next growth level. But what followed was a period of misgovernance and policy paralysis, decision deficit and scams, endemic corruption and loot of the exchequer. All this created a world of jobless growth, declining GDP, increasing current account deficit, rising interest rates, rocketing inflation, mounting external debt, depreciating rupee and a sinking feeling of despondency.
In particular, what hit the middle class has been the inflation. High inflation attributed to higher oil prices, increased headline inflation and price rise in essential commodities and food items hit all except the super rich.
And a case in point has been the growing chasm between the rich and the poor in India. Despite the proportion of the poor declining between 2004-05 and 2011-12, their gap with the rich has risen for the first time in rural areas in about 35 years and to an all-time high in urban areas.
“What Indian people are suffering is due to inflation and corruption.They have no answer for that,” a BJP spokesman said after the Budget was delivered. “The government has nothing to offer and, therefore, it is a failed budget.”
Playing down the populist part and projecting the interim budget as a pragmatic piece, finance minister P. Chidambaram who presented his first interim budget said, “My intention is not to please anyone. My intention was to speak plainly to the people of India and tell them (that) these are turbulent years. We are navigating through a turbulent period.”
But the Budget remain a last ditch effort by the ruling coalition to win support of the people whom they are guilty of failing on several counts repeatedly. Despite the limited elbow room in an election year, Chidambaram tried to squeeze in goodies for a large section like scheduled castes, minorities, women, farmers, army personnel and of, course the urban middle class.
India would very soon know if this last gamble paid off in just about two months when the polls begin and the people’s verdict hopefully would elect someone who can simply deliver and stop the rhetoric for once.
(Rajiv Theodore is India Bureau Chief, The American Bazaar.)
To contact the author, email to editor@americanbazaaronline.com