Within days of the introduction – not passing, yet – of the Union Budget, a change in the nation’s political mood is perceptible. The Modi government stole a march over its rivals, taking the poor, the farmers and the salaried middle class on a journey they could only dream of in the past. While many are at a loss to figure out how the government would raise enough funds to meet the promises like the Rs 3000 a month dole to over 10 crore labourers in the unorganised sector, or a 6000-rupee payment through instalments a year, this pessimism is overshadowed by a sense of hope among the lower and middle income groups. They are seeing light at the end of the tunnel.
Yet, one might argue that there’s a trust-deficit when it comes to promises made by Modi or his government. After all, he had made “funny” promises during the last Lok Sabha poll campaign that, if elected, he would put Rs 15 lakh in the bank accounts of each of India’s large army of poor — from the black money he would seize from those who have deposited it in tax havens abroad. Nothing of the sort ever happened; rather, the poor became poorer and the rich richer under his watch – as had been happening ever since Independence. India is a nation famously lorded over by its one per cent rich, which keeps to themselves some 90 per cent of the nation’s wealth. Governance by politicians, perhaps, is just a puppet show guided from behind by the filthy-rich.
India’s poor, fed on a regular diet of hope, might still cozy up to Modi. He gave free LPG connections to six crore BPL families; he has started the Ayushman Bharat health scheme that offers an insurance cover of Rs 5 lakh per annum to the poor for health care. This, over and above what the Sonia-Manmohan era offered them: subsidised rice. Raising the income tax ceiling to five lakh from half its size is by itself a huge reassurance to the middle-class. Modi is not stopping at what he has promised in this budget; he says it’s just a trailer – meaning, bigger things for the poor are on the way. In the end, much might not come from the government if at all Modi is elected back to power.
Winning polls is what prompted Modi to try and loosen his government’s purse strings. For now, Rahul Gandhi and the Congress, not to speak of Mamata, are crest-fallen and are at a loss for words.