’Federalism weakened’: On Budget 2024, Chidambaram says flaw in NDA’s approach to economy, governance is...

After the Union government presented its Budget 2024-25, former Finance Minister and Congress leader P Chidambaram said, "Federalism has been considerably weakened by the central government taking over — rather usurping — the executive and legislative powers of state governments."

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Congress leaders, including P Chidambaram and Gaurav Gogoi, held a press conference on Thursday evening to express their views on the Budget 2024 presented by Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman.

P Chidambaram said Sitharaman did speak about 'minimum government' and 'maximum governance', but in reality, the 'minimum government' has undermined federalism.

He said, "Staffed state governments with funds and virtually reduced the third tier of governance, panchayats and municipalities, to cyphers. The overwhelming majority of people are dependent on the third tier of government for their services but that tier has been virtually deprived of human and financial resources."

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'Fundamental flaw in the NDA’s approach...'

Chidambaram said, "The fundamental flaw in the NDA’s approach to the economy and governance is that it is biased in favour of the rich. It is a government of the rich, by the rich and for the rich." NDA is an acronym by National Democratic Alliance, which is led by the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).

He said this government “has practically forgotten the bottom 50 percent of the people”.

Chidambaram said the government is "either ignorant or callous to the fact that the top 10 percent owns 60 percent of the nation’s wealth and earns 57 percent of the national income".

"...that income inequality has widened significantly in the last 10 years," the Congress leader said. "This outcome is because of the lower growth rate during the 10 year period (2014-2024) as against the UPA period (2004–2014)," he added.

He claimed, “In the last year of the UPA, 2013-14, we left a Gross Domestic Product GDP growth rate of 6.4 percent and an average growth rate of 7.5 percent. In the NDA period, the average growth rate has been less than 6 percent.”

'Boastful claims by government...'

Chidambaram said that in the last three days, "there has been a tiresome repetition of boastful claims by the government on how India has surged forward in the last 5/10 years".

He noted that the finance minister spoke about the youth, but not about unemployment. "The FM did not acknowledge the rampant unemployment and did not utter a word on how the government intended to address the problem," he said.

"By deliberate neglect over the last 10 years, the government has destroyed the demographic dividend story and dashed the hopes of millions of youth and their families," Chidambaram said.

He went on to say that Sitharaman spoke about women, but "the topmost concerns of women are the rising crime against women and widespread unpaid employment".

"The FM spoke about farmers... The FM did not reveal the number of suicides among farmers including agricultural labour...The FM did not even acknowledge the causes for the plight of the farmers: rising input costs, insufficient and uncertain MSP, biased import and export policies, and crop insurance that is either absent or denied. Under the NDA’s 10-year rule, a happy farmer is an oxymoron," he added.

'Talk about per capita income growth, not GDP growth'

Chidambaram also questioned why the per capita income not growing at the same rate as the total GDP growth. He noted, "The FM spoke about GDP, but she did not speak about the per capita income."

"She barely referred to inflation but she did not refer to the fact that food inflation, currently is 7.7 per cent; that real wages for casual workers have stagnated for four years; and the fact that there is an increase in the proportion of workers dependent on agriculture," the Congress leader said.

He said, “The fastest growing economy is not a badge of honour. China's GDP is five and a half times more than our GDP. If they grow at, say, 3 percent, in order to match their annual growth, we have to grow at 15 percent... So don't talk about GDP growth. Talk about the per capita income growth.”

"If the GDP is growing at such a high rate, why is the per capita income growing at half that rate? If the GDP is growing at 7%, why is per capita income growing only at 2 or 3%? Please ask the finance minister that question. If the total GDP is growing at 7%, why is per capita income not growing at the same rate?" Chidambaram said.

Earlier on Thursday, Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman presented the Interim Budget 2024 and expressed hope that the good policies and the work done by the Central government will help the BJP return to power for the third consecutive time in a row.

The Union Finance Minister said in her budget speech, "Our young country has high aspirations, pride in its present and hope and confidence for a bright future. We expect that our government, based on its stupendous work, will be blessed again by the people with a resounding mandate."