New Delhi: Congress leader Shashi Tharoor Wednesday took the government to task over its financial management in a verse and data-riddled speech delivered in the Lok Sabha.
Tharoor, speaking during the general debate on the interim budget in the lower house of parliament, said that the people of the country have been “sadly betrayed by a government whose economic mismanagement” over the past decade has resulted in widespread distress, hardship, low incomes, and high unemployment.
Over the course of his speech, Tharoor spoke about a wide range of economic issues, starting with the demonetisation decision of 2016, moving on to the Goods and Services Tax (GST), the damage to the MSMEs in the country, the poor employment numbers, and the dire state of farmers.
“If demonetisation was a bad policy, badly implemented, GST was a good idea, badly designed and shabbily implemented,” Tharoor said.
“The goods and services tax has been used to trample over the financial autonomy of our states and, when coupled with demonetisation, it resulted in finishing off India’s job-generating small micro and medium businesses,” he added. “It caused a 45-year unemployment high and ended the economic recovery that had begun in 2013, all while failing to achieve any of its stated objectives.”
He further said that the four ‘castes’ that Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman mentioned in her interim budget speech — women, youth, farmers and the poor — were some of the worst performing groups across indicators of social and economic policy performance.
“There is a tragic irony in the government’s claims of success when desperate young people are queuing up to risk their lives in Israel in the middle of a war because they have no decent work in India,” Tharoor lamented.
“Overall, an unemployment rate of 8-9 percent has become the new normal in our country,” he said. “Unemployment reached a 45-year high in 2017, currently stands at 7.3 percent according to CMIE data, but has been higher than 8 percent just a few months ago.”
He further alleged that the Indian economy currently employs fewer people today than it employed in 2012
“Agriculture and manufacturing jobs have gone down, financially precarious construction work and low-end service roles are the only ones where they’ve seen any sort of employment,” he said. “No wonder people are so prepared to risk their life and limb for a job in Israel, risking dying to make a living.”
Tharoor further said that the share of agriculture in total employment has gone up, which is an indication that there are not enough jobs available outside of agriculture.
‘NDA stands for no data available’
Tharoor went on to ask why, if as the government claims, it has freed 25 crore people from multidimensional poverty, did 81 crore people still need to receive foodgrain for free. This was in reference to the government’s decision to extend its free food programme for five years.
“Second, how was the government expecting us to trust their numbers when consumption expenditure surveys were not done from 2014 onwards to 2022 and the National multidimensional Poverty index has been attacked by experts here and abroad who questioned both the manner and methodology with which it is calculated,” he further asked.
“On issue after issue, the NDA apparently stands for ‘No Data Available,” he said, to applause from his party colleagues.
On inflation, Tharoor said that although the finance minister termed inflation as moderate, the fact remained that retail inflation measured by the Consumer Price Index rose to a 15-month high of 7.44 percent in July 2023.
He added that wholesale market prices in December 2023 were 19.6 percent higher when compared with the same month the previous year, with the price of paddy increasing by about 10.5 percent, milk by 7 percent, and vegetables by 26.3 percent, year on year.
Politics through poetry
Tharoor also launched into a poem during his speech to drive home his point about rising prices.
“Karj ke bhoj se aam aadmi tartar ho gaya,
Mehenga ho gaya khana peena, mehenga ghar ho gaya,
Mantriji ki budget ki khaami hum batlate hain,
sir se karke shuru, chalo pairon tak jaate hain,
kuch ninda yaaron ke bade bangle ho gaye,
Baalon se pairon tak aate, ham kangle ho gaye,
Maana aap dye nahi karte, kai toh karte hain,
Itni mehengi ho gayi dye, ki lagane se darte hain,
Chashme ke daamon ko sun, ankhein ro gayee,
Kam lagao toothpaste, paste bhi mehengi ho gayee,
Baal katane se bhi hum ab katne lag gaye,
Bina cream ke haath pair bhi ab phatne lag gaye,
Phat gayi kameez ki collar, par nayi toh leh nahi sakte,
GST itna zyada, hai, hum de nahi sakte,
Pooch raha tha koi hum vazan kaise ghatate hain,
Jab se sabziyan ke daam badhe, hum kam se khaate hain,
Dikhake loliipop woh bharmake chale gaye,
Iss baar bhi woh apne hi gunn gaa kar chale gaye,
Kaise soch liya ki janta phir se maaf karegi,
Iss baar chunavon mein janta jadd se saaf karegi
(Translated for language, not poetic artistry:
The common man is troubled by the burden of debt,
Food and drink have become expensive, as have houses
Let me tell you the drawbacks of the minister’s budget,
Let’s start with the head and take it to the feet,
Some condemnable friends have seen their houses swell,
From head to toe, we have become broke
Agreed that you don’t dye your hair, but many do
But dye has become so expensive, people fear to use it
Hearing the prices of eye-glasses, the eyes tear up
Use less toothpaste, paste has also become expensive
Now we get cut from even getting haircuts,
Without cream our hands and feet have also started cracking,
Our shirt collars have also started tearing, but we can’t buy new ones,
The GST is so high, woah, we can’t give that much,
Somebody was asking how one lost so much weight,
When the prices of vegetables rose, we started eating less,
They showed us a lollipop, deceived us and went away,
Even this time, they only praised themselves and went away,
How could they think that the public will forgive them this time too,
This time in the elections, the public will uproot them and clean them out.)
Finally, Tharoor rebutted the FM’s claim that GDP stood for Governance, Development and Performance.
“The fact is, it’s not equitably enhancing the capabilities of the ordinary people of this country,” Tharoor said. “Instead, G stands for government infusion and tax terrorism, D stands for demographic betrayal and P stands for poverty continuing.”
(Edited by Zinnia Ray Chaudhuri)