So it is official. We are a socialist country. When the so-called rightwing and pro-business party delivers a populist budget, with an eye on the fattest vote banks (the rural poor and farmers this time), you know India is a long way from being a capitalist nation.
Many experts have analysed the budget. The positives, most agree, are a certain restraint in keeping fiscal spending in check, and a push to rural infrastructure. The glaring negative is the lack of any big idea to truly transform our economy, spur new investment, and create jobs. The government seems to have forgotten its poll promises, particularly to the educated youth of this country. The middle class, the hardworking, tax-paying millions (who ironically supported the BJP), were gouged further. As a rude shock, their pension savings would be hit with another tax. A few more surcharges and cesses, further scraping the already-taxed citizen, are also part of the budget. In other words, this was not a BJP budget. It was a UPA cut-and-paste budget. Worse, it was one of the lacklustre UPA budgets. If the BJP had been in opposition, they would have criticized this budget. They would have called it dull, boring, populist, anti-business and anti-middle class.
Well, such is political life. You promise voters something before the election, they vote for you, then when you don’t need them, you ignore them. This is what the Congress did. This is also what the BJP did. It is just sad the BJP did it to two of its most loyal supporters in the 2014 polls — India Inc and the youth.
Why did BJP do this? It lost a few state elections. So it sat down and did the math. Farmers and poor people are more in number. So let’s go and target them this time. Let’s create the poor vs rich and poor vs middle class divide. This means let’s never talk about a good Indian budget, which is good for all, rich and poor. No, we must always play the poor vs rich narrative, and then skin the middle class and the rich some more.
Sounds familiar? Well, the Congress has done it quite successfully. Had it not been for the monumental scams, they might have still been in power. AAP is trying to do it, and is quite good at it as well. Now the BJP is trying to do it, and letting down the youth and the business community.
The party’s off: India’s youth will need millions of new jobs in coming years. Where will they come from?
For business is still hard in India. Just as an example, try to open a small café in Mumbai. You may be passionate about the food industry, but unless you’re passionate about hustling with the BMC and half-a-dozen other government entities for permissions, you better give up. Even if you do open that café, your middle-class customers will be taxed on the bill amount, which they will pay from their already-taxed income. Thus, they will think ten times about eating out, especially since their car runs on petrol that is taxed at over 100%, despite oil prices being at historic lows. The politician will say, but why should I care for these café owners and middle-class diners when I have millions of poor? Well, when you make business hard and meals too expensive due to taxes, there is no café. When there is no café, there are no jobs at the café. When there are no jobs at the cafe, many of the poor stay jobless. Thus, overtaxing business and middle-class consumption actually harms the poor. It, in fact, keeps them poor.
What we call pro-poor in India is usually pro-poverty. Capitalism works on the premise of incentivizing private individuals to make money, and thus increase consumption and jobs. However, no political party in India believes in it, for socialism is a much easier sell. Even for a rightwing party like the BJP. They didn’t want to be tagged as a suit-boot ki sarkar. So they have joined the rest in making policies to ensure India never gets suited and booted.
A rags-to-riches Indian billionaire once told me, “In India, now we are habituated to being poor.” Maybe he was right. Poverty can be addictive.
Meanwhile, the youth of this country, the ones who have dreams and want India to provide them opportunities… Sorry, we are not ready yet. There’s still too many of us who believe in poverty and socialism. No neta will go against that tide, no matter what they say in their poll speeches. If you really want change, don’t just back a political leader or party. Spread the message of fair and good capitalism to the rest of the country. Until enough people are convinced, no politician will do anything about it. In the meantime, try to get a job. There aren’t going to be that many of them around in the next few years. And whether the BJP will have a job in 2019 or not, well, that’s another discussion, isn’t it?
March 6, 2016 ()