Rajya Sabha MP and former finance minister P Chidambaram on Thursday took a swipe at the Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led government saying that under the BJP-led NDA’s term, saying that the fundamental flaw in the NDA’s approach to the economy and governance is it is biased in favour of the rich.
Speaking at a press conference, following the interim Budget 2024-25 that was presented by Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Thursday,” he said, “It is a government of the rich, by the rich and for the rich.”
“The government is either ignorant or callous to the fact that the top 10 per cent owns 60 per cent of the nation’s wealth and earns 57 per cent of the national income and that income inequality has widened significantly in the last 10 years,” Chidambaram said.
“This outcome is because of the lower growth rate during the 10 year period (2014 – 2024) as against the UPA period (2004 – 2014). In the last year of UPA, 2013-14, we left a GDP growth rate of 6.4 per cent and an average growth rate of 7.5 per cent. In the NDA period the average growth rate has been less than 6 per cent,” he added.
The Congress leader claimed that the numbers put out in the 63-page Economic Survey have been “challenged” by economists and domain experts.
“The finance minister spoke about youth. She did not speak about unemployment. According to the PLFS (July 2022-June 2023) and the State of Working India Report, 2023, the unemployment rate among youth between the age of 15-29 years is 10% per cent (Rural 8.3, Urban 13.8). Among graduates under the age of 25 years, the unemployment rate is 42.3 per cent. Even when the graduates reach the age of 30-34 years, the unemployment rate is still 9.8 per cent,” he said.
“The finance minister did not acknowledge the rampant unemployment and did not utter a word on how the government intended to address the problem. By deliberate neglect over the last 10 years, the government has destroyed the demographic dividend story and dashed the hopes of millions of youth and their families,” he added.
She also said that topmost concerns of women are rising crime against women and widespread unpaid employment.
Citing NCRB data, the former finance minister said that crimes against women arose by 4 per cent in 2022 compared to 2021.
Chidambaram also said that the finance spoke about farmers, but didn’t acknowledge the causes of the plight of the farmers.
“Every farmer will tell you a story of how he/she is unhappy doing farming. The FM did not reveal the number of suicides among farmers including agricultural labour. The numbers in 2020, 2021 and 2022 are 10,600, 10,881, and 11,290 respectively. The wrath of the farmers was seen by the whole world when they protested against the three unjust farm laws passed without consulting them,” he said.
Chidambaram added, “The FM did not even acknowledge the causes for the plight of the farmers: rising input costs, insufficient and uncertain MSP, biased import and export policies, and crop insurance that is either absent or denied. Under the NDA’s 10 year rule, a happy farmer is an oxymoron.”
He also said that the allocation in the 2024-25 Budget for health is 1.8 per cent and for education 2.5 per cent of total expenditure. “None of the boasts can be accomplished with such low expenditure,” he said.