• Prakash Pohare

At present, most of the country has got immersed in the name of ‘Ram’. Actually, it would be more correct to say that the Bharatiya Janata Party has done the same. (However, Laxman and Sita are nowhere to be seen in this, even Ram has been disintegrated by BJP!) On January 22, 'politicized' 'Ram Bhakti' was taken to its peak. In fact, there is no possibility that there is any 'Ram' in the ruling party, who will boldly say that Ram Bhakti should not be politicized, while the same Ram devotees are breathing life into the idol of Ram Lala. A deep-set concern is already being expressed everywhere regarding the construction of the newly constructed temple at Ayodhya. Here is a huge opportunity for the opposition party's 'Aayaram', but if the same opposition party members speak against the government or refuse to dive into the 'washing machine' of the ruling party's 'ally', then the 'ED' immediately come running at just one call. At present, ED, CBI, Income Tax are also contesting the elections along with BJP. Although the Election Commission has not yet merged with the BJP, it has an alliance with the BJP, which has been seen during many elections and was also prominently visible in the Chandigarh Mayor elections!

That is why the BJP government has excluded the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court from the committee that appoints the members of the Election Commission. ‘Electronic voting machines’ have been deployed here. These EVM machines are manufactured by Bharat Electronics Limited (BEL). Of the seven directors of this company, four are BJP leaders. At present, question marks are being raised on EVMs across the country. So those who call themselves Ram devotees, should they learn anything from Ramayana or not?

We must have seen or read in Ramayana that when someone questioned Sita Mata's trustworthiness, Lord Shri Ramchandra forced Sita Mata to undergo the ‘Agni pareeksha’ (Trial by Fire). Similarly, when lakhs and crores of citizens of our country raised questions on the role and credibility of EVMs, the government and the Election Commission, why didn’t the Ram Bhakta government give 'Agni Pariksha' like Maa 'Sita' by deciding to conduct elections on ballot paper instead of 'EVM'. Why don't they? But this is not to be done, because the ruling BJP has decided on the agenda of 2047. This has been reiterated while presenting the budget today. Where did such 'extreme confidence' come from in BJP? Is this 'Amritkal Strategy' hidden in 'EVM'? Perhaps that is why there was nothing in the budget presented that would provide relief to the common people of this country. 'Free' ration to 80 crore poor out of Rs. 140 crores, except this one 'Rewari', the government did not feel the need to make any popular announcement for the common people from this budget, its secret may be hidden in this 'EVM'!

There is no need to do anything after saying ‘Amritkaal’. Because everything is going well in ‘Amritkaal’! Now, like icing on the cake, Modi has also allegedly established Ram Rajya, perhaps that is why the budget presented by Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman was described as one belonging to the ‘Amrit Kaal’. How much a party is in favour of the public and how much it is in favour of industrialists is not known in the electoral arena, but through the budget. Grand speeches can be made in the election field, a lot of promises can be made, but nothing like this can be done in the budget. Therefore, to understand the destiny of the ruling political party, we have to look at the budget presented by it. More importantly, we understand from the budget what the government is doing with the money paid by the public through various taxes? Government is elected by the people so that something can be done for them! Only the budget shows whether the government is doing this or not!

No matter how much the Modi government beats the drum and says that we are entering into the 'Amritkaal', it is gradually being realized that this is a 'Vishkaal' and will continue to be so. The government itself has announced to provide free ration to 80 crore poor people and has proved that even today 80 crore people in this country are living in primitive times and have to struggle for a two square meal. But this reality was suppressed today by Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman by beating the drum of the fifth largest economy.

Actually, there are no new announcements for farmers in this budget. Every day there are reports that people across the country are complaining about the increase in prices of agricultural commodities. The prices of petrol, diesel and gas remain the same. Overall, the government has only created the illusion of development through this budget. In fact, if the reality of the $3.7 trillion economy is to be understood, the IMF's warning cannot be ignored. India's debt burden has increased from Rs. 55 lakh crores in 2013 to Rs. 205 lakh crores in the last 10 years by December 2023. The International Monetary Fund has also warned the Indian government in this regard. No matter how much the government denies it and tries hard to show that only its government can fulfil the dream of a developed India, it has to be kept in mind that the mountain of debt in the country is increasing the country's worries.

When the Central Government presented the budget for 2022-23 and 2023-24, the budget had to deal with three major crises and find solutions to them. Those three crises are- unemployment, agriculture and small-scale industries. The budget for 2024-25 presented by the government expresses great disappointment on all the three levels mentioned above.

Two years ago, Finance Minister Sitharaman, while presenting the budget for 2022-23, had announced 'PLI Scheme' (Production Linked Incentive Scheme) to increase employment and said that through this, 60 lakh jobs will be created in the next 5 years. Why is the government not disclosing the figures of how many jobs were actually created? The word 'unemployment' did not appear even once in Nirmala Sitharaman's entire budget speech this year. How can one become unemployed in 'Amritkaal'? That's why this word might not have been mentioned!

At present, lakhs of posts are lying vacant in many government sectors like railways, education, health. Nothing was said in this budget about the filling of these posts. In contrast, MNREGA, which provides employment to crores of people in rural areas, was cut by Rs. 30,000 crores in the first financial year 2023-24 and no provision has been made for MNREGA in this budget.

Now let us turn to agriculture. Everyone thought that this time there would be focus on agriculture and efforts would be made to increase the income of farmers, but this was not seen in the budget. Last year, about 10 lakh tonnes of arhar dal was imported. Export ban was imposed on onion. Exports of wheat and rice have also been banned. When Indian cotton started getting slightly higher prices, the Central Government imported American cotton at the rate of Rs. 4,500 per quintal. Making commotion claiming that cotton is expensive in India, many cotton entrepreneurs booked large quantities of cotton bales and yarns from abroad. Most cotton is imported from Brazil, Australia and the United States, where cotton is cheaper due to heavy subsidies given to farmers by their governments. Due to exemption in import duty, traders in the cotton market are emphasizing on foreign cotton. As a result, the price of cotton in India fell and the hard work of farmers was wasted. The farmers demanded that the government should give guaranteed prices for 22 crops. But not a single new crop has been guaranteed in this budget.

Not a single rupee was increased in ‘Pradhanmantri Kisan Samman Yojana’. The budget of the Agriculture Ministry was also not increased. Overall, it seems that the government has neglected the agricultural sector and has given all the losses to the farmers only. Farmers' income was to double by 2022, but what happened? There is no mention of this in this budget, but all the commodities required for farming have doubled and the prices have halved, that is, farming has quadrupled.

There are different opinions on what is happening in the country today. Some say that this is 'Amritkaal', while others consider it as 'Zeharkaal'. Of course, there will be debate on this, but if we look at the reality of the overall situation in the country, what will we come to know? It is true that development is taking place. But what is developing? The general public is afraid to ask this question. Due to increasing unemployment, prices of everything including fuel, essential commodities, travel continue to increase. Along with this, the wealth of some rich people who can be counted on fingers seems to have increased manifold.Sensex, Nifty are at new highs, but only a few special people will benefit and if they fall, they will create a lot of ruckus. Of course, this government will help them a lot, like their loans worth lakhs of crores were completely waived off. But farmers are harassed a lot even for small loans. Given all this, who is this government for? The answer to this question is easily found, but many people still do not think about it. The blind devotees and their devotion seem amazing. Why is this so? I want to tell the readers that they must find the answer to this 'Why'. (The author is the Editor of Marathi daily ‘Deshonnati’, Hindi daily ‘Rashtra Prakash’ and weekly ‘Krishakonnati’) The author can be contacted at 9822593921.