July 24, 2024
Sagarika Ghose’s speech on the Union Budget for 2024-25
Mr. Chairman, Sir, I rise to speak on behalf of my Party, the All-India Trinamool Congress, on the Union Budget presented by the hon. Finance Minister. Inequality, inequality, inequality – this is the fundamental crisis facing our country today. This inequality crisis has not been addressed by this Budget, nor has it been addressed by the previous 10 Budgets of this Government. The Government is constantly telling us that it is pushing us into more and more growth, but it is pushing us into more and more inequality. This Government is pushing us into what I call the ‘inequality trap’. The Paris-based World Inequality Lab has said, in its 2024 Report, that India’s ‘Billionaire Raj’ has replaced the ‘British Raj’. India is more unequal now than what it was in 1920s in the colonial period. Sir, I want to repeat that India in 2024 is more unequal than what it was under the colonial rule in the 1920s. That is the catastrophe of inequality facing us. That is why the Budget needs to be about the real people, the real India, the real issues and not about fantasy land, not about Disney land. Here are some facts about inequality. The top one per cent of India controls 40 per cent of the country’s wealth. Real earnings of regular salaried and self-employed have declined or remained stagnant. The hon. Finance Minister claimed that the GST has benefited the common man, but the truth is that 67 per cent of the GST is paid by the poorest 50 per cent of India. India is a country where 800 million people still depend on free food. The Budget needed to challenge, needed to address this inequality trap. It needed to tackle the inequality trap. It has failed to do so. I wanted to present five examples of the inequality trap. The first is the inequality trap with regard to the States. The second is the inequality trap with regard to the rural areas. The third is the inequality trap with regard to the jobs. The fourth is the inequality trap with regard to wealth and income. And, the fifth is the inequality trap with regard to health and education. First, I would speak regarding inequality trap on States. This is a Union Budget meant for 28 States and 8 Union Territories, but a specific focus on Andhra Pradesh and Bihar shows that this Government is looking to appease its new-found allies. Look at the allotments made for Andhra Pradesh, the allotments made for Bihar and the huge financial package for Andhra Pradesh. We wish the people of Bihar and Andhra Pradesh the best, but can you discriminate against some States and make special provision only for two States simply because you have forged a coalition with these States at the Centre? I have to remind that this is the same Government that went back on its promise of special status for Andhra Pradesh and Bihar. Now, for political convenience, the Government is bestowing largesse on these States. . This unequal allotment is against constitutional democracy. It is constitutionally immoral. It is ethically repugnant. It is economically ruinous. . This is not co-operative federalism. This is discriminatory federalism. The Finance Minister talked about Purvodaya, Look East, Act East, but what is the Government doing in the largest State of eastern India? Bengal is under siege. Bengal is facing an economic blockade. Bengal has not received NREGA funds since December 26, 2021. A massive amount of over rupees one lakh crore is due from the Centre to Bengal. The Finance Minister talked about the PM Awas Yojana, but for Bengal, funds have been withheld under the PM Awas Yojana for 11 lakh sanctioned homes. An amount of Rs.7,000 crore has been withheld from Bengal under the National Food Security Act simply because the Centre wants certain pictures and logos on those centres. Why this economic seize of Bengal? It is not just about Bengal — my friends from the DMK are here — it is about Tamil Nadu, it is about Karnataka, it is about Kerala. My friends from the Shiv Sena (Uddhav Thackeray faction) are here. It is also about Maharashtra. Every citizen, whether he is from Manipur, Maharashtra, Punjab or Kerala, has equal rights on the funds of the Government of India. Why is the federal spirit being compromised? I would like to make a suggestion here. What is needed is a time-bound transparent audit of all the Centrally-sponsored Schemes of the Centre. Will the Government give an assurance to this House of a transparent timebound audit of all Centrally-sponsored schemes across States? Sir, the second example of the inequality trap is… Sir, the second example of the inequality trap … The inequality trap in the rural areas… Sir, when the Government is asked about legal guarantee for the Minimum Support Price.. The Government’s Economic Manager says that it will cost 17 lakh crore of rupees. Sir, no viability concerns are made … When the Government is asked about the legal guarantee for the Minimum Support Price, the Government’s economic manager says, we can’t do this; it will cost 17 lakh crores of rupees. But what about the fact that in 2019, the Government gave the corporate India tax relief of about one lakh crore of rupees per year. The Home Minister is urging people to invest in the stock market but the poor labourer in Bengal is waiting for his NREGA wages. He does not get his NREGA wages. No practical steps have been taken in this Budget to make agriculture buoyant. Allocations to agriculture and allied sectors have been reduced to only 3.15 per cent of the total Budget. Subsidies on fuel, food and fertilizers have been slashed. No permanent structure has been created for debtrelief for the farmers. When farmers agitated for the Minimum Support Price, the Government refused to have a dialogue with them. Mr. Chairman, Sir, do you know that just this year alone, 1,200 farmers in Maharashtra have committed suicide and have lost their lives. Why does the Finance Minister not recognize this reality? Today, in spite of the Jal Jeevan Mission hype, 22.5 per cent of the rural households only have access to piped water within their plot and yards throughout the year. Sir, the third example of the inequality trap is jobs and unemployment. It has taken ten years for the Government to wake up to the reality of unemployment. Amrit Kaal and Viksit Bharat cannot happen without rojgar. In this speech, the hon. Finance Minister mentioned ’employment’ 23 times. In the Budget for the year 2023-24, she had mentioned ’employment’ just three times. At last, she has mentioned the word ’employment’. This is what a rebuff from the voter can do. Since the 2020 lockdown, millions have lost jobs but the Government is in a ‘sab changa hai’ mindset. The internship and skilling programme is simply not good enough. It is way too inadequate. It does not address the scale of the problem. A Centrallysponsored scheme for providing paid internship opportunities in 500 top companies or some rupees as benefit to first time employees is pure advertising and tokenism. It is not going to solve this mammoth problem of unemployment. Sir, 42 per cent of graduates under the age of 25 can’t find a job. The youth make up 80 per cent of India’s unemployed. This year, as the hon. Member, Mr. Chidambaram also said, 47 lakh candidates applied for 60,000 constable jobs and 27,000 candidates applied for 600 jobs in Air India. There has not been no massive push on education to make sure that money is pumped into education, without which lakhs of Indians will remain unemployed. Sir, hatred, religious hatred is bad for the economy. Religious hatred cannot produce growth. Recently, orders were given to deny livelihood to people on the basis of food habits. The Supreme Court has struck it down, but India can only provide jobs when we build social harmony. Joblessness is very high among the disadvantaged communities, among dalits, among Muslims. In other privileged groups, joblessness is skyrocketing. There is nothing in this Budget that provides an assurance that the Government of India is standing by India’s most disadvantaged citizens. This brings me to my fourth inequality trap, inequality of wealth and income. The Government talks of competition, but we only have oligarchy. We have a booming airline industry but only two operators of note; over a billion mobile subscribers but only three telecom companies. Sir, the rich have lavish celebrations, the rich have lavish weddings, lasting days. But only 50 per cent Indians can afford three square meals. We are at 142 out of 197 in per capita income. The biggest catastrophe of this Government has been the systematic destruction of the MSME sector. According to the Government’s own data, more than 35,000 MSMEs have closed down since the Covid pandemic. How does the Government intend to address the income gap when those who are the most vulnerable to changing economic tides are the least protected? What protection is there for the MSMEs in this Budget? None! There has been no change or relief on the 45-day payment rule which is hurting MSMEs, as it is leading to cancellation of orders. Other than a sketchy sentence on rationalizing GST rates, no specific measure has been outlined in this Budget for the revival of the MSMEs. What stops the Government from cushioning MSMEs the way it is cushioning India’s top corporate? Income will not rise until the unorganized sector is given the greatest, the top, foremost priority. Prioritize the unorganized sector now. Do it now. To add to the woes of the ordinary citizens, the Budget has abolished the benefit of indexation, which now means a huge tax burden on all assets acquired before 2001. The burdens of real people have only increased. Wage earners and salary taxpayers have been given little relief. Three words are not mentioned in this Budget – Railways, minimum support price for farmers and MGNREGA. Why has the Finance Minister not mentioned these three words fundamental to the real people of India — MGNREGA, Railways and minimum support price? I propose, as a solution, a dignity index. Let the Government create a dignity index to measure how many are living a life of dignity and aim to create an economy where the maximum number can live a life of dignity. Sir, the fifth inequality trap is of health and education, stagnating or declining allocations to health and education, health at one per cent and education hovering around two per cent of the GDP. In this Budget, health and education allocations have only gone down. Sir, a shocking statistics for you! The UNICEF has said that India is the second largest country with zero vaccinated children. In 2023, 1.6 million children did not receive any vaccine at all. … A UNICEF Report says India is the second largest country of zero vaccinated children. On education, the state of education report says that 25 per cent of 14 to 18 year olds cannot read class 2 texts. An eighteen year old cannot read a class 2 text. That is the reality of education. The Budget shows no awareness of this demographic disaster that is threatening to take over our demographic dividend. Sir, Amartya Sen has said that economic development cannot be sustained without an educated and healthy workforce. A Budget is much more than just numbers. A Budget should reflect the ideas of this august House. This august House reflects the ideas of the constitution of dignity and equality of all. In Bengal, we are respecting dignity, but the Government is not. The Government is to wake up from this bubble and smell the coffee, or rather the chai, but without sugar because Indians cannot afford sugar. Sir, we were wanting a Budget for the people. We have got a Budget for the privileged. This Budget, the Budget of 2024, remains trapped in the inequality trap. Thank you, Sir.
