The Union Budget of 2018 came as quite a shock to everyone, especially for the service and the middle-class. While the government did manage to please the poor sections of the society, crawling their way to win social ticket to 2019 elections, but the fact that the ordinary section got no reliefs may come as a drawback to them. From Modi government’s budget people expected a lot of relaxation towards medical care facilities. The mega healthcare scheme announced in the Budget is known to cost only about Rs.10,000 crore annually. While where more than 10 crore poor families, assuming an average family size of 5people, the budget is expected to go into negative. The programme is likely to cost about Rs.10,000 crore with the share of the central government being about Rs.4,000-5,000 crore as the financial burden will be shared with the states, as per the statement given by the economic affairs secretary Shubhash Chandra Garg. The plan somehow seems to work but with the rate of inflation and the poor state of hospitals in the country, it seems impossible to fulfill the promises in the budget without finance being the principle cause.
Another boost to their long-term in power plan was the blessings of the elderly. Arun Jaitley recommended extending the PM Vaya Vandana Yojana till March 2020 under which gives an assured return of 8%, given by the LIC of India. He also raised the limit of deduction for medical expenditure in respect of certain critical illnesses to Rs.1 lakh for all senior citizens. Earlier, this limit was Rs.60,000 for senior citizens and Rs.80,000 for very senior citizens. The concessions will cost the government Rs.4,000 crore. At a time when fixed deposit returns are around 7%, this will help senior citizens get higher interest rates.
Eradicating the small section of middle-class, those of who are not a fan of Modi, a larger part loves Narendra Modi. Fixating to this idea of support the budget announced, the middle-class throng may recoil to the news. The attitude towards the nation is contemplated through the support towards Modi government. What puzzles me out here is how a small section of the society suddenly be the cause of interest in where the entire financial thesis of the country now revolves around them. Modi strategically managed to cut open the slammed door to free votes. Now is that promised? Prior to every election the most common the unethical practice of purchasing votes through money or alcohol. A sizeable section of the poor community always falls to be trapped with either intoxicated drinks or paper. It is pretty much understood that the budget only attempts to help different tribes and sections of the society, giving a bonus for equality to exist on their platter, but if the sole motive here is to grab votes from the so long neglected tribe, the results may disappoint them. The fact that Modi promises to grow India through the bullet train dream fiasco, the ordinary section has been in awe with Modi. Suffering in unemployment, standing in long ques for hours, only to wake up to destroyed aspirations. Modi acted against their will of hope of relief. A non-reliable section of the mass (pseudo-seculars) may have tarnished the ‘hinduvta’ and nationalism feels, that might have portrayed as displeasing to Modi. This doubt continues to gnaw at me. Counting from demonetization to GST and its after-effects, Modi has been pretty hard on the majority section.
The strategy adopted to distribute pleasure and win votes with empathy from the poor and the grey-haired class, somewhere in between the politics, Modi may lose the mass of the middle-class. The tax rebate for individuals earning up to Rs.3.5 lakh is reduced to Rs.2,500 from present value of Rs.5,000. The no-tax reduction policy for the firms with annual turnover of more than Rs.50 crore to 25 per cent, broke the hell lose for the ordinary section. Trying to win over the future votes of the minority section which can be bought, selling the moral values to cash-in-hand or intoxication, the government sure dug a hole for itself.