The Opposition political parties across the country have united to criticise the Union government for the sedition charges against the JNU student Kanhaiya Kumar. The issue has claimed space across the media – print and electronic and of course the social media. The criticism of the government’s handling has come from across political parties that do not share the saffron ideology. Over the weekend, Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, taking on the Union government for the escalating JNU row and the resulting fracas, said that this was a deliberate attempt by the BJP to draw away attention from the economic situation in the country. His exact words were, “Since they have failed miserably on the economic front after making tall claims during the Parliamentary elections, they have triggered an emotional issue to hide the failure.”
It is coming to that time of the year when the common man begins to worry about tax-saving investments and wonders what the Union Finance Minister has in store in his closely-guarded Budget, the third of this government. The Budget for 2016-17 will be tabled in the Lok Sabha next Monday and the Bihar Chief Minister’s allegations of an economic failure aren’t unfounded. The ache din that this government had promised have not arrived and they don’t even appear to be on the horizon. A few weeks ago there were reports from New Delhi that a cabinet reshuffle would see a new minister taking charge of the Finance ministry. That speculation was quickly swept aside by the Prime Minister’s Office, but new reports emerge that Prime Minister Narendra Modi is taking a more than usual interest in the Budget this year.
If Indian Prime Ministers in the past have given their hand-picked Finance Ministers broad directions on the Budget and then left it to the minister to take it from there, there are now reports that Modi and his team in the Prime Minister’s Office have got closely involved with Finance Minister Arun Jaitley and his Finance ministry in trashing out the details of the Budget. This Budget will have to pay serious attention to various factors, the tax slabs being one of them, as this decides how much disposable money the common man will have in his pocket. The dipping sensex and the falling rupee would be on the Finance Minister’s mind as he prepares the Budget. These are signs that the economy is not doing well and that it needs a push to move forward.
As the Modi government approaches its second anniversary – it’s just three months away from this – it needs to focus on economic reforms and in delivering on its promises of 2014. There have been no radical reforms coming from this government that had promised a lot. The government needs to prove that its policies – economic and social – are inclusive, taking people of all faiths, communities and States into consideration and with the government. The JNU row should lead the government to understand that its saffron ideology cannot always work, that what people want is strong economic growth and only that will drive this country forward.
Nitish Kumar is right in bringing back the focus on the economy and this government’s failure in delivering on its promises. The sloganeering is not yielding the desired results. ‘Make in India’, sounds good, so does ‘Swaach Bharat’, but neither has translated into any results. Whether the Smart City projects will yield results, time will tell. Reforms are more important that schemes and projects. Modi, perhaps realises that there is no time for complacency, that his government has to act fast, but whether his ministerial colleagues are on the same page as him is a question mark. A lot of how India’s growth story will be written in the coming months will depend on the Budget that will be presented in a week’s time.
