New Delhi: Raghav Chadha, the Aam Aadmi Party’s Rajya Sabha MP from Punjab, delivered a compelling speech in Parliament, sharply criticizing the central government’s budget and offering economic recommendations. He attributed the reasons for the ruling party’s defeat in the recent Lok Sabha elections to their economic policies.
In his impassioned speech, Raghav Chadha criticized the recent budget, claiming it has disappointed every segment of society, including BJP supporters. He likened the government’s tax policies to being like a leech, alleging they have only increased the burden of the common man. Chadha highlighted that despite the substantial taxes citizens pay, they receive inadequate services in return, such as education, health, and transport facilities comparable to those in Somalia despite taxation levels similar to England’s.
Today, if a common man earns 10 rupees, then the government deducts two to three rupees from it as income tax, two-and-a-half rupees as GST, and 1-1.5 rupees in the form of a surcharge. He argues that despite these deductions amounting to 7-8 rupees out of every 10 earned, the government fails to provide world-class education, health, and transport facilities to its citizens.
Raghav Chadha succinctly summarized the reasons behind the Bharatiya Janata Party’s defeat in the Lok Sabha elections, emphasizing the economy as the primary factor. He stressed that the poor state of the economy, particularly its severe impact on rural areas where a majority of India’s population resides, led to a decline in BJP’s seats in those regions. Chadha’s analysis underscores the critical role economic conditions play in shaping electoral outcomes, especially in rural constituencies.
He said that in 2019, the Bharatiya Janata Party got 303 seats. This time the people of the country brought them down to 240 seats by imposing an 18 percent GST on it. Today, the economic condition in rural areas is at its lowest level in the last two and a half decades due to inflation, unemployment, economic inequality, debt on farmers and high cost in agriculture, and lack of MSP, while the promise was to double the income of farmers and give MSP as per the Swaminathan report.
Chadha said that rural wages have decreased in the last 25 months. In 2014, a daily wage laborer could buy 3 kg of tur dal with his one day’s wages, today he is able to buy only 1.5 kg of tur dal. This means inflation is increasing and their income is also decreasing. Therefore, BJP’s vote share decreased by 5% in rural areas.
The second reason due to which they fared badly in the elections is food inflation. Today, the prices of every commodity, be it flour, milk, rice, or curd, have increased a lot. Today food inflation in the country has increased by more than nine percent. The things that we export have become very expensive today and the farmers do not even get the benefit of it. Then where is all that money going?
He also gave many suggestions to the government regarding the economy. The first suggestion is that the government should try to link inflation with minimum wages so that poor people get relief from inflation. The second suggestion – the prices of crops given to farmers should be reviewed in a better way so that agriculture can be profitable third – for the economic well-being of farmers, MSP should be legally guaranteed as per the recommendations of the Swaminathan Commission.
