BJP markets Modi's 'Sabka budget'

Five days after the Narendra Modi government presented its first full budget, the BJP fielded Minister of State for Finance Jayant Sinha to quell the “perception” that the budget had nothing much to offer the middle class, poor and farmers, besides being dubbed as pro-corporate. 

Sinha, son of former finance minister Yashwant Sinha, made a Powerpoint presentation to the media on key highlights of “Sabka (everyone’s) Budget”.   

At the beginning of the press conference held at BJP headquarters, the Minister of State for Finance stated that the objective was to rid misconceptions about the budget by giving facts and figures.  Increase of service tax to 14 per cent and no change in tax slabs are some of the issues picked up by the experts and opposition parties to argue that the budget belied anticipation. 

Speaking about “India’s economic realities” – a glance at poor fiscal health inherited from the previous UPA regime, Sinha said due to Prime Minister Modi’s insistence, the focus was on providing jobs to youth, empowering farmers and welfare of poor. 

Ahead of both Houses of Parliament discussing the budget in the coming week, Sinha in his presentation described it as “Sabka Budget – Gareeb Ka Apna Budget” by emphasising on the social security schemes such as insurance to cover accidental and natural death risks and pension plans for have-nots.Similarly, he highlighted the programmes to upgrade lives of rural people and infrastructure.

Sinha said the 2015 budget was unparalleled as it had “20 high impact initiatives”. In the budgets presented so far since independence, only Atal Bihari Vajpayee-led NDA government’s budget had eight to 12 reform initiatives, he said.

The minister said that as a result of the initiatives, interest rates would come down further, with the first sign coming from the RBI’s slashing of repo rate or the borrowing rate for banks. He also argued that had the budget not been good, the Sensex would not have spiralled after being on a high for one year.