Soliloquy

The Budget, as presented by Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman earlier this week, seemed to address every idea that was central to the country’s growth, and every idea that was not. While a lot of the metrics used by the honourable minister to arrest the slide that the country was diving nose-deep into post the rigours of the pandemic are exciting, the burden continued to be borne by the middle-class taxpayer was dispiriting.

The former could be achieved by several means, the most important of which is perhaps being more prudent in a fiscal sense and allowing the markets to correct themselves before making a move. In that sense, Ms Sitharaman allocated big budgets towards developments of a type that this nation would desperately need, but can hardly afford to. Such courses, once taken, are hard to correct, and one hopes that the country’s economy remains stable enough for such gambles to last.

Andhra Pradesh and Bihar, the two pillars holding together a fragile-looking majority-less government at the Centre, were awarded perhaps the most number of disbursements in the country, and deservedly so, for Prime Minister Narendra Modi can hardly afford to ruffle the feathers of either Chandrababu Naidu or Nitish Kumar. Both gentlemen have the power – and willingness – to bring down the unstable coalition government at the Centre and cannot be displeased by any means.

Yet, the shrugging of the government’s responsibility at the request of special status for both states seems to leave a sour aftertaste in what was a rather interesting Budget, and leaves room for the political presumption of a vulgar sort. The burden on the middle-class salaried taxpayer, as mentioned earlier, worries speculators a tad given that there has hardly been any sort of relief for them, as was widely expected before the Budget went to the floor.

The BJP had already alienated urban, young, middle-class voters with its communal rhetoric ahead of the general elections this year, and that almost directly translated into a lesser vote share for them. With the increase in taxation from capital gains – perhaps the only source of passive income viable for the salaried professional – as well as the increase in the calculation of deductions, the government may have hit a veritable nail on its foot. What works in its favour is that it still has five years to govern, and public memory is extremely weak.

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