BJP govt. for the rich, divides poor on religious lines, says P. Chidambaram

P. Chidambaram criticizes BJP government for favoring rich, neglecting poor in Budget allocation, leading to economic disparity.

The Narendra Modi-led BJP government, which always strives to protect the welfare of the rich and the super rich, will never take care of the poor and the poorest of the poor, who are being instigated on religious lines to cover its failure, senior Congress leader and former Union Finance Minister P. Chidambaram has said.

Addressing a public meeting at Palayamkottai on Saturday, Mr. Chidambaram said the Union Budget presented on an outlay of ₹47 lakh crore had unmasked the BJP’s sinister designs as it aimed only at protecting the welfare of the rich and the super rich by generously giving incentives to those who had an annual income of ₹500 crore and above. And the well-being of the middle class, accounting for 30% of the Indian population, had also been taken care of to some extent.

However, the Budget did not worry about the welfare and growth of 70 crore poor Indians. Of this, 25% (35 crore people) were homeless, nomads and alms seekers.

A chunk of money allocated in the previous Budget for education, healthcare, rural development, etc., remained unspent and utilised for other purposes.

“After allocating ₹ 28,318 crore for job creation, the government spent only ₹20,000 crore. Similarly, allocation of ₹1,250 crore for health, ₹11,584 crore for education, ₹10,000 crore for social welfare, ₹ 11,000 crore for agriculture, ₹75,000 crore for rural development and ₹19,000 crore for urban development was not spent.... When we questioned Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, there was no reply from her,” Mr. Chidambaram said.

While the MGNREGS allocation remained ₹86,000 crore for the past two years, a similar amount had been allocated again for this revolutionary scheme for the ensuing fiscal too even as the prices of food (over 6%) education (11%) and medicine (14%) expenses had gone up. This inflation had landed the poor in a debt trap even as unemployment had breached all tolerable proportions. Hunger was still there in India as a large section of the people were going to bed without food.

“While giving over ₹ 1.70 lakh crore loan waiver in 2023 – 2024 and ₹2.08 lakh crore in 2022 – 2023 for the super rich, the Budget waived no education loan,” Mr. Chidambaram charged.