Response from political parties, without exception, is to offer non-solutions to very real problems in agriculture, and of unemployment and low incomes. Palliatives are not solutions.
The Narendra Modi government is looking at ways to check states’ spending on handouts like free electricity and rations. The first step is to tighten the noose on state borrowings.
Evidence shows budget handouts may not get Modi or BJP any more votes than they would have got otherwise. Samajwadi Party lost 2017 UP polls despite the sops.
DMK govt accuses Centre of withholding funds, tightening borrowing, unilateral deductions from state accounts. Says Centre's accounting & funding decisions have 'artificially inflated' debt burden.
This is the game every nation is now learning to play. Some are finding new allies or seeing value among nations where they’d seen marginal interest. The starkest example is India & Europe.
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