Congress leader and former Finance Minister P. Chidambaram criticized the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance’s economic approach, alleging it favors the wealthy and has “destroyed” India’s demographic dividend. Following the presentation of the Interim Union Budget in Parliament, Chidambaram expressed his concerns. He also stated that the Congress party welcomes a white paper scrutinizing the economic performance of the previous Congress-led United Progressive Alliance government.
Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge echoed Chidambaram’s sentiments, emphasizing the absence of vision and accountability in the Interim Budget. In a video statement, Kharge remarked that the budget failed to provide both a status report on previous years and a vision for the future, highlighting deficiencies in the budget’s overall approach.
At a press conference held at the party headquarters, Mr. Chidambaram strongly criticized the Budget’s allocations for crucial sectors such as youth, women, and farmers. He also voiced disapproval of the government’s policy of “minimum government and maximum governance”.
‘Rampant unemployment’
The Congress leader noted that while Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman addressed issues concerning youth, she failed to acknowledge the widespread unemployment. Additionally, the leader pointed out her omission of the alarming statistic: over 30,000 farmers and agricultural laborers had died by suicide between 2020 and 2022. Furthermore, the Finance Minister did not address the concerning low participation of women in the labor force.
Mr. Chidambaram remarked that through intentional negligence over the past decade, the government has dismantled the narrative of the demographic dividend, leaving millions of youth and their families disillusioned. He criticized the government, stating, “It is a government of the rich, by the rich, and for the rich.” Furthermore, he highlighted the alarming statistics indicating that the top 10% of the population owns 60% of the nation’s wealth and earns 57% of the national income, underscoring the significant widening of income inequality in the last 10 years.
Per capita income vs GDP
When questioned about India’s designation as the fastest-growing economy, the former Finance Minister pointed out that being labeled as such isn’t necessarily a source of pride.
He emphasized the vast discrepancy between China’s GDP, which is five and a half times larger than India’s. Even if China were to grow at a modest 3%, India would need to achieve a staggering 15% growth rate just to keep pace. This perspective led him to suggest shifting the focus from GDP growth to per capita income growth. Despite the apparent rapid GDP expansion, he raised concerns about the disparity in the growth rates of GDP and per capita income, urging for a closer examination of this discrepancy.
High food inflation
The seasoned Congress leader criticized the Finance Minister for overlooking the pressing issue of inflation, particularly with food inflation soaring at 7.7%, while the real wages of casual laborers have remained stagnant for four years. He pointed out the omission of India’s standing in the Global Hunger Index and the prevalent malnutrition among children, resulting in high rates of stunting and wasting, despite the mention of distributing free grain to 80 crore individuals.
Mr. Chidambaram further noted that the “minimum government” approach has, in practice, weakened federalism, deprived state governments of essential funds, and effectively marginalized the third tier of governance—panchayats and municipalities—rendering them insignificant.
