Shadow of the mandate of June 4, avoiding big risks… 5 messages from the 11th budget of the Modi government

New Delhi: This was the 11th consecutive budget of the Narendra Modi-led NDA government, which reflected the changed political situation due to the Lok Sabha results on June 4. Along with this, it also showed the way to the economic direction of the Modi 3.0 government. Narendra Nath explains the five messages that emerged from this budget1- Return of the coalition era
For the first time, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitamaran focused so much on two states in her budget. The way special treatment was given to two important allies of the central government – Andhra Pradesh led by Chandrababu Naidu of TDP and Bihar led by Nitish Kumar of JDU, was in a way a declaration of the return of coalition Dharma. Before this, Narendra Modi’s government had not felt such political pressure in the budget. But this budget sent a clear message that allies will also take the ‘price’ of their support in the government when the time comes.

2- Shadow of the mandate of 4 June
It was also clearly visible in the budget that the mandate of the general elections held on June 4 is still on the government. This time the opposition parties had made employment a big issue. The figures that came later also indicated that the young voters have shown their displeasure with the BJP on this issue. The government paid attention to this in the budget and by keeping the youth and their employment in focus, gave the message that they are ready to learn from the political results. The indication is clear that in the future politics, the focus of all the political parties on the youth will increase further and the policies of the government will also revolve around them.

3- Listened to the poor, emphasised on villages
In the Lok Sabha elections, BJP got fewer votes from the poor population of rural areas than the last time. To regain their trust, the government has emphasized on rural areas in the budget. From agriculture to housing scheme or other subsidy schemes, villages were given priority in the budget. According to experts, the government definitely avoided populist schemes in the budget, but has shown the intention to spend a large part of the budget there.

4- Dilemma seen towards the middle class
In this first budget of the third term of the NDA government, if there was one thing that was most awaited, it was what is there for the middle class, will there be any tax relief? But like last time, this time too the dilemma regarding the middle class was seen in this budget. This class did get partial relief on the tax front in the budget, but in the immediate reaction this class did not seem happy. In such a situation, there may be an attempt to appease them in the coming years. The government also gave the message that instead of giving direct benefits to the middle class, the focus will be on gathering better resources for them.

5- Avoiding big risks
The style of the Modi government has been surprising so far, but this time, big risks were avoided in the budget. There was no place for big-bold reforms. Status quoism was followed to a great extent. At the policy level, there was talk of expanding old schemes or implementing them on a better and bigger scale. But a clear message of Modinomics of keeping the fiscal deficit under control was given that there will be no compromise on this front. Along with this, the message was also given that the government now expects private investment along with its treasury for expenditure, which did not happen in recent years as per their expectations.