Indian Budget- More of a Tradition

The annual Indian budget is out and media discussions are rife about what the government did right and where it could have done better. Political parties are reacting on the predicted lines. I too have my reservations and analysis of this year’s budget. What does this budget mean for the aam aadmi? Do budgets really matter for the common man anymore or for that sake, does the industry take the budget as seriously as before?

            Post 1991, every passing year shows that the Annual Budget is more of a tradition now than a serious financial statement. With markets being deregulated price control is not a major issue and decisions regarding excise duty, import tariffs, subsidies are taken all the year round. Fiscal policy is a major part of the budget where this time the entire tax system has been handled in the old way though promises of gargantuan nature were made before polls and budget by the present BJP government. Though GST was anathema for BJP in the past, it has embraced it enthusiastically now which is “interesting”. How subsides and welfare program spending will be handled is a tricky question which has not been answered substantially by the Finance Minister.

            29 schemes have been allotted 100 crores each which does not make sense as the amount is too small for these projects and there is no roadmap regarding the source of revenue.

            However my biggest concern is the amount given for infrastructure. 27600 crores have been earmarked for various projects. Somewhere the land mafia influencing the budget seems high. Even during the UPA regime, money was misspent and projects took longer than required which escalated the costs. The priority for the government should be to see that implementation of these projects is on time and there are no sidekicks passed out.

            Another allocation which is beyond comprehension is the amount allocated for building the iron statue of Vallabhai Patel. 200 crores have been allocated for this. It was the pet project of the then Chief Minister of Gujarat, Mr Narendra Bhai Modi for which he also collected iron from all over the country. Now why does the government want to spend so much of the tax payer’s money on such a project and allocate just 100 crores for women safety is beyond logic.

            Similarly 100 crores have been allocated for a survey to be done on inter linking the rivers. We have had many committees and sub committees on this issue, therefore having another survey costing 100 crores is insane.

Making MNREGA more practical and financially viable is a good initiative of the government. Asset creation is a must for these welfare schemes because mere handouts will not lead to poverty alleviation.

If we talk about the state of Madhya Pradesh in this budget, then we find that much has not been given to our state. If just take the railways, we find that we have the lowest railway network of 16.67 km/ 1000 sq kms whereas the national average is 24 kms. We have been kept out of the Golden Quadrilateral which was a NDA program. Similarly our road network is also very poor at 110,000 kms where our neigbouring state Maharashtra which is smaller in size has 250,000 kms of roads. Though we have BJP both at centre and in our state, we have not been given the status of privileged state. We have 21 percent tribal population which is the highest in the country, highest IMR and MMR rate (poor roads is one of the cause for these rates to be high) among other poor indicators.

Budgets have become more of a tradition and less of an important financial statement because it lacks government vision. Policies of the government are not clearly spelt out. Political will is the most important thing for this country which is somehow lacking.

Women- The Punching Bag for All

 

The past couple of years we are hearing more and more stories of atrocities against women. Gang rapes, murders, creating MMS have become part of everyday life. Recently there was this case of Badayun where 2 sisters were raped, hanged to death by upper caste people of the village involving a police man. If these horrific incidences were not enough for us women, we now have our elected representatives asking their men o rape and kill us. Tapas Pal, a celebrated actor of Tollygunj and a 2 time MP of TMC was recorded on camera asking his men to rape and kill women who were Communist sympathizers. In the Badayun case, Akhilesh Yadav asked a female journalist smilingly whether she was raped or not? His father a thespian of politics went a step further and said boys made mistakes and rape was one of them. Babulal Gour, an octogenarian, 8 time MLA from Madhya Pradesh and the current Home Minister of the state is known for his derogatory statements against women. The latest being that women are responsible because of the clothes they wear & men who rape do not inform the police before doing this. The Home Minister of Chhatisgarh echoed his thoughts. A Goan minister is against women going to pubs and drinking. He wants them to stop wearing short dresses. And if all of this was not enough we have a BJP leader O P Dhanker promising Harayanvi men that he will get them Bihari brides if they bring BJP to power in the state.

All these men and their statements are not one off. We can see them regularly mirrored in our everyday lives when constitution gives us the right education but the society takes away our right to apply this education and earn for ourselves. Laws have been made but the implementers of these laws are the perpetrators of such horrors in the society. Women leaders who sit on the citadel of power by breaking norms in the past, now do nothing more than paying lip service. There are agitations, gheraos, fact finding missions, corpus funds, new schemes but no stringent action is taken against any of these men by any political parties.

The thought that comes to mind with regards to these moronic statements is that is our society really so regressive? Are our elected representatives really so insensitive? Are political compulsions so strong that a trail blazing leader like Mamta Banerji does nothing? Is political will so low? Is the divide in the society so wide that women are used as means of destruction?

Over the years we have continuously seen political parties advocating education for girls, bringing them into jobs, giving them representation in elections and reservations in Panchayats. But has all this helped the cause of women at large? Are the leaders echoing what the society really thinks? In my city of Bhopal women have the liberty of moving out for their education and jobs but they are not secure.

Is there a solution to all this? Discussions, seminars, symposiums on gender equality, women emancipation talks about creating awareness in the society, sensitizing the boys, giving self defense courses to our girls, more stringent laws are some of the measures. Yes they all work but we also need to set an example of our leaders. Tapas Pal has a wife and daughter, both in public life and quite liberal. Babulal Gour’s daughter in law is a Mayor, Akhilesh Yadav’s wife is a two time MP. Ehat does this all reveal that it is fine to further the careers of the women of their families mete out Talibanise acts for women in general. Leaders and political parties have to take tough decisions and we women need to come together to fight for our cause.