Ease of living has taken a hit amidst inflation, rising prices, and job-related challenges, significantly impacting BJP's poll prospects
Ease of living has taken a hit amidst inflation, rising prices and job-related challenges. It was a major poll plank of the opposition, especially Congress which resorted to specific guarantees to provide relief to the common man. All this adversely
impacted BJP's poll prospects. Taking a leaf from that, Modi 3.0 will be focusing on Ease of living. This time, along with marginalised sections of society, the focus will be on the formidable yet neglected middle class. During the last 19 years of Modi's rule, the focus was on the poor sections of society. This was reflected through the disillusionment of middle-class voters during the Loksabha polls, denying an absolute majority to the BJP. Faced with assembly elections in Haryana and Maharashtra in October, the BJP is consciously treading the course-correction path to win the confidence of the electorate.
As inflation has hit people hard, the government may well provide budgetary measures like relief in personal income tax, a hike in tax exemption on interest on Savings accounts and benefits to government staff under the National Pension Scheme (NPS). The budget will come with a reworked middle-class housing scheme to enlarge the number of beneficiaries and benefits like the reintroduction of interest subsidies to homebuyers and tax incentives to developers under PMAY (U). The budget may also come up with measures to promote slum redevelopment to bolster ease of living. The government is also expected to fulfil its promise to broaden the coverage of the Ayushman Bharat scheme by providing free Rs 5 lakh health insurance coverage to senior citizens above the age of 70 years,
Taking a lesson from the Loksabha polls, not just the centre, even the BJP-ruled states are taking welfare measures to enhance ease of living. In competitive populism, doles are now no longer being derided as 'rewris'. In poll-bound Maharashtra, already Rs 80000 crore of welfare schemes including subsidy for onion and milk farmers, and free power to farmers' agricultural pumps of eligible capacity, have been rolled out. Taking a leaf from the popular 'Ladli Behna' scheme of the BJP-ruled Madhya Pradesh, Rs 1500 per month and 3 cooking gas cylinders a year have been announced for eligible women from poor households.
The Haryana government is taking populist welfare measures including free bus rides to the poor, plots for the backward communities and special placement drives to recruit youth for government jobs besides considering a job quota for Agniveers. In a major policy decision, Haryana has enhanced the powers of sarpanches, allowing them to sanction development works of Rs 21 lakh (against Rs 5 lakh earlier ) without e-tendering. Under Mukhyamantri Shahari Swamitv Yojana, ownership certificates are being provided to those occupying land for over 20 years. To tackle the ire of the urban middle class due to poor civic infrastructure, the state government is taking desperate measures to stem the rot. The construction of the Gurgaon Metro Extension, hanging in balance for years, is going to be started before the state elections.
As the BJP paid the price for farmers' discontentment, the government's welfare measures are going to be focused on farmers. The policy measures may well include increasing the PM Kisan Scheme allocation, greater investment in R&D and new technologies and better seeds to improve crop yield to achieve doubling of farmers' income and a new National Cooperative Policy and setting up of farm credit societies in over 200000 panchayats and measures to ensure fair price to farmers.
A bumper RBI dividend and Rs 1.09 trillion in non-tax receipts will come in handy as a cushion for the government to undertake a range of welfare measures. Under MGNREGA, one may see a hike in mandatory days of employment and wages. Schemes for workers' wellbeing include increasing the beneficiary pool of pensions under the Employee Pension Scheme (EPS), more employment under the National Career Services (NCS) scheme and expanding the registration target of workers on the e-ashram portal.
Against the backdrop of 1.67 million informal sector jobs lost in over 7 years, notwithstanding BJP's claim of creating 12.5 crore jobs in the last 10 years, the Budget will put focus on skill upgradation of workers and professionals with incentives for companies promoting skilling.
While following the broader path of structural reforms to boost the economy, the budget is going to have the central theme of ease of living to ensure that the gains of economic development reach the masses.
(The writer is a senior journalist; views are personal)
