SANTOSH KUMAR PATHAK
New Delhi, Feb 12 (IANS) The BJP, which is facing criticism from several Opposition parties, including the Congress, on the issue of unemployment and inflation, has made a big electoral bet on the country’s largest population – the ‘middle class’.
On one hand, the BJP is reminding the middle class about how they were “completely neglected” by the governments of Congress and other opposition parties; while on the other hand, the Narendra Modi government with various schemes and provisions in the Union Budget 2023-24 has attempted to lure the middle class.
Upset over terrorism and corruption in the country, the middle class played an important role in bringing the BJP to power in 2014. Besides these two factors, ‘Hindutva’ and nationalism agendas too helped the saffron party in wooing the voters.
In 2019 as well, the middle class played a key role in the formation of the NDA government at the Centre by giving a historical mandate to the BJP. That’s the reason why Congress is constantly trying to woo the middle class by raising issues like inflation and unemployment.
To counter the Opposition, the BJP has made a big electoral bet on the middle class. In the budget presented in Parliament on February 1, Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman made several important announcements for the middle class. On the same day, Prime Minister Modi issued a statement highlighting the announcements made in the budget.
Prime Minister Modi said that the budget will fulfil the dreams of an aspirational society including poor people, middle class people, and farmers. He also called the middle class a “big force” to fulfil dreams of a prosperous and developed India, adding that his government has taken many decisions to empower them.
The Prime Minister asserted that his government, which has always stood with the middle class, has given huge tax relief to the middle class.
A few days later, on February 7, while addressing a meeting of all BJP MPs, Prime Minister Modi instructed the party leaders to go to their respective constituencies and talk to the poor and the middle class and tell them about the provisions made for them by the government in the budget.
Speaking in the Lok Sabha on February 8 during the discussion on the Motion of Thanks on the President’s Address, the Prime Minister said that the vote bank politics has sometimes given a “very deep blow to the country’s potential”. He also said that for a long time, the middle class was completely ignored in the country.
Referring to the benefits received by the middle class from various schemes of the government, Prime Minister Modi said, “Till 2014, the price of 1 GB data used to be Rs 250 but now it is just Rs 10 in India… On average, a person in India uses 20 GB of data, and as per that analysis, a person saves Rs 5,000 on this.”
He further said that about Rs 20,000 crore of middle class society has been saved because of Jan Aushadh Stores today.
Prime Minister also said that every middle-class family has the desire to have their own house, and the government provided the facility to avail of a loan for it. The money of the middle class was getting exhausted because of the Real Estate Regulatory Authority law but the government has provided relief from that as well because of which it is getting convenient for a person to buy a new house.
In fact, along with the country’s social fabric and economy, the eyes of both the ruling party and the opposition always remain on the middle class, which plays the most important role in forming and changing governments in every election.
The middle class, the country’s largest taxpayer, usually complains that the government neither takes care of them nor brings schemes for them like other classes. Prime Minister Modi is concentrating on this “sore spot” of the middle class and has indicated that in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, the focus of both the party and the government will remain on the middle class.
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