The Union Budget 2023-24, unveiled in Parliament on February 1 by Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, can best be characterised as “pro-corporate, and anti-poor.” The average person anticipated that the government would offer some relief from the spiralling costs of necessities, the rising jobless rate, and the failing healthcare system. Once more, their hopes were dashed. Social sector funding was severely slashed.
Naturally, the common man reacted to it, calling it an ‘Anti-People Budget’.
Avinash Singh, a roadside vendor, calls it an anti-people budget. “The needs of the poor people are not catered. When BJP talks of income tax relief, it is eyeing the middle classes which are considered the support base of the ruling party.”
“Where is the funding for the sectors of infrastructure, education and health?” Ashok Kumar and Swadhin Kumar Sasmal, who are graduates and doing petty jobs, asked in the same tune.
Amiya Ranjan Jena, a student, said the funds allocated for the upliftment of the backward classes is very less in proportion to their population. He calls it an ‘anti-people budget’.
The Union Budget 2023–24 was presented at a time when the Indian economy has slowed before the pandemic, worsened during the two pandemic years, and is being negatively influenced by the global economic downturn that is perhaps heading into a recession during the post–pandemic recovery. This budget should have focused on raising domestic demand growth and expanding people’s purchasing power through creating jobs in light of the current situation.
This budget is inadequate to address the situation. Instead, it reduces government spending to close the budget gap while providing wealthy people more tax breaks. This occurs at a time when an Oxfam research reveals that the richest 1% of Indians has accumulated 40.5% of the country’s wealth over the past two years. Thus, it is a contractionary budget that will only make the financial crisis worse.
The budget cuts the MGNREGA allocation by 33% when unemployment is at an all-time high. 90,000 crores less will be spent on food subsidies. Only 6,900 crores for petroleum subsidies and 50,000 crores for fertiliser subsidies have been allocated.
There is no increase in the workers’ already pitiful compensation under the ICDS Scheme. In comparison to a population of 16%, the SC budget is only 3.5%, and in comparison to a population of 8.6%, the ST budget is only 2.7%. The lowering of the PM Kisan Fund grant from Rs. 68,000 crores to Rs. 60,000 crores exposes the hollowness of grandiose boasts of doubling farmers’ incomes.
Despite the destruction brought on by the pandemic, Rs. 9255 crores of the budget for health from the previous year went unused. The budget for education also has unspent funds totalling Rs. 4297 crores.
Union Budget 2023-24 is Rs. 45,03,097 Crores, an increase of 14% over the budget estimate of 2022-23, Rs. 39,44,909 Crores. For Scheduled Castes, it is around a 12% increase; in the year 2023-24, it is Rs. 1,59,126 Crores compared to Rs. 1,42,342 Crores in the year 2022-23. For Scheduled Tribes, it is about 33%; in 2023-24, it is Rs. 1,19,510 Crores compared to Rs. 89,265 Crores in the year 2022-23.
The budget is not only a mathematical figure; no one should be thrilled about mathematics. It is qualitative programmes that make a difference in the lives of the people. It can be said the government is misusing its privilege to misguide Dalits and Adivasi through these mathematical figures. The facts produced by CAG and DASAM are evidence of it.
There was also a massive cut in the budget meant for minorities which has been slashed almost a record 40 percent. The allocation for the Ministry of Minority Affairs is now less than 0.1 percent of Rs 45 lakh crore total annual budget for 2023-24. The budget estimate for the ministry was ₹5,020.5 crore in the current financial year 2022-23. However, this time, the Union Finance Minister allotted a budget of ₹3,097 crore to the Minority Ministry. It is to mention, the revised allocation of the funds to the Ministry in 2022-23 was ₹2,612.66 crore which means that 40 percent allocated fund was not utilised during the current financial year.
For more than 250 million religious minority populations, according to Dr. Sultan Ahmad, the money allotted is a pittance and appears to be a cruel joke inflicted on them.
Echoing his views, Dr Syed Ahmad Khan said since this government came to power minorities are under attack and the budget also reflects this. He also pointed out that the governing body of the National Council for Promotion of Urdu Language (NCPUL) was not formed which has a mandate to earmark the fund. Hence the money allotted to NCPUL will be lapsed.
Opposition parties also reacted to the meagre allotment to minority budget. Senior Congress leader and former finance minister P Chidambaram said the government is openly exhibiting its anti-minority policies as though it were a badge of honour. He criticised the government for ending the Maulana Azad National Fellowship, saying that the government is “on overdrive” to make things difficult for students from minority communities.
In a series of tweets, Chidambaram said, “The government’s excuse for scrapping the Maulana Azad National Fellowship and the subsidy for education loans to study abroad to minority students is grossly irrational and arbitrary.” Even admitting that there are “overlapping” schemes, is the fellowship and subsidy to minority students the only schemes that overlap with another scheme, the former Union finance minister asked.
“MGNREGA overlaps PM KISAN. Old age pension overlaps MGNREGA in the case of old workers. There are dozens of such overlapping schemes,” Chidambaram said. The government is on overdrive to make life more difficult for minority students, he alleged.
“Government is openly displaying its anti-minority policy as if it was a badge of honour. Shame,” the Congress leader said on Twitter. In her reply to the question in Lok Sabha, Minority Affairs Minister Smriti Irani had also said the coverage under the Pre-Matric Scholarship Scheme has been revised from 2022-23 and made applicable for classes 9 and 10 only as the Right to Education (RTE) Act, 2009, provides for free and compulsory elementary education (classes 1 to 8) to each and every child.
The government has slashed “every key subsidy” which means that the increased spending would not be on the poor.
Premier Muslim body Jamaat-e-Islami Hind (JIH) also expressed serious concern over huge cuts in budgetary allocations for minorities and reducing fertilizer and petroleum subsidies. Senior leader of JIH Prof. Mohammed Salim Engineer said that reducing budget allocation for minorities from Rs. 5,020.5 crore to Rs. 2,612.6 crores indicated that it was not in line with Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s call for “sab ka saath, sab ka vikas.” He said it seems that the government wants to appease its core constituency by reducing amount to the minority welfare schemes.
According to budget documents presented in the Parliament, the merit-cum-means scholarship for professional and technical courses for students from minority populations was among the numerous scholarship and skill development programmes that saw significant funding reductions. While the budget for the same programme was 365 crore last year, this year’s allocation is mere 44 crore.
1,689 crore of the ministry’s proposed budget will go toward empowering education.
The budget for skill development and livelihoods is around 64.4 crore.
The estimated cost of the umbrella initiative for minorities’ development is 610 crore rupees.
Additionally, the Finance Ministry cut more than 900 crore from the pre-matric scholarship for minorities for the fiscal year 2023–2024. The amount allocated for scholarships in the previous budget was 1,425 crore, but it is now only 433 crore.
In the current fiscal year, nothing was allocated to programmes run by the ministry that enable the students to pass preliminary exams held by the UPSC, SSC, and State Public Service Commission. Last year’s budget for the same was 8 crore. The budget for free coaching and related programmes for minorities was similarly reduced this year by about 60%. Last year, the same was funded with 79 crore, while this year, 30 crore has been set aside.
The Education Scheme for Madrasas and Minorities has been allotted 10 crore for the fiscal year 2023–2024 – a drastic reduction in budget. The same is 93% less than the 2022–23 budget’s allotted sum of 160 crore.
After removing a person belonging from minorities as the head of Minority Affairs Ministry for the first time since its inception, now the budget has also been slashed roughly 40 percent.
This demonstrates how little concern and interest the present government has for enhancing the socioeconomic conditions of minorities. The growth of all components of society appears to be unimportant to a regime whose slogan is “sab ka saath, sab ka vikas.”
However, Smriti Irani, who holds additional charge of Minority Affairs, hailed the Union Budget saying, “Congratulations to PM @narendramodi Ji & FM @nsitharaman Ji for a truly ‘Amrit Kaal Budget’ epitomising inclusive development & reinforcing economic fundamentals.”
There’s nothing in the Budget for poor people and to control inflation. It may be ‘Amrit Kaal’ for Prime Minister Narendra Modi, not for common people.
As the former Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister and People’s Democratic Party (PDP) chief Mehbooba Mufti says, the budget has been prepared keeping in mind the interests of a few businessmen. “The budget is the same as the ones presented by the BJP-led Government over the last eight-nine years, rather than benefiting people, welfare schemes and subsidies are being done away with. The situation in the country is such that those who had risen above the poverty line have again fallen below it,” Ms. Mufti said.