Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman in her interim budget speech 2024 categorised India in just four castes: poor, youth, women and farmers. It is these categories that would be accorded highest priority in the nation’s developmental goals.
“As our Prime Minister firmly believes, we need to focus on four major castes. They are, ‘Garib’ (Poor), ‘Mahilayen’ (Women), ‘Yuva’ (Youth) and ‘Annadata’ (Farmer). Their needs, their aspirations, and their welfare are our highest priority. The country progresses, when they progress. All four require and receive government support in their quest to better their lives. Their empowerment and well-being will drive the country forward,” Sitharaman said in her Budget speech.
With such a thrust, Sitharaman underlined that the Modi government had changed the language in which the nation’s growth has been articulated.
“Previously, social justice was mostly a political slogan. For our government, social justice is an effective and necessary governance model. The saturation approach of covering all eligible people is the true and comprehensive achievement of social justice. This is secularism in action, reduces corruption, and prevents nepotism.”
The finance minister stressed that transparency had ensured that benefits were delivered to the eligible. “The resources are distributed fairly. All, regardless of their social standing, get access to opportunities. We are addressing systemic inequalities that had plagued our society. We focus on outcomes and not on outlays so that the socio-economic transformation is achieved,” she said.
“Our government is working with an approach to development that is all-round, all-pervasive and all-inclusive. It covers all castes and people at all levels. We are working to make India a ‘Viksit Bharat’ by 2047. For achieving that goal, we need to improve people’s capability and empower them,” she added.
Sitharaman put the budget in the context of the longstanding growth mantra of the Modi government.
“With the ‘whole of nation’ approach of ‘Sabka Prayas’, the country overcame the challenge of a once-in-a-century pandemic, took long strides towards ‘Atmanirbhar Bharat’, committed to ‘Panch Pran’, and laid solid foundations for the ‘Amrit Kaal’. As a result, our young country has high aspirations, pride in its present, and hope and confidence for a bright future,” she said in the interim budget speech 2024.
The finance minister said she was confident that the way Modi government had powered India’s growth and development, the people would bless it with another mandate in the upcoming Lok Sabha elections.
“We expect that our Government, based on its stupendous work, will be blessed again by the people with a resounding mandate.”
“Inclusive Development and Growth. Our humane and inclusive approach to development is a marked and deliberate departure from the earlier approach of ‘provisioning up-to-village level’. Development programmes, in the last ten years, have targeted each and every household and individual, through ‘housing for all’, ‘har ghar jal’, electricity for all, cooking gas for all, bank accounts and financial services for all, in record time.”
“The worries about food have been eliminated through free ration for 80 crore people. Minimum support prices for the produce of ‘Annadata’ are periodically increased appropriately. These and the provision of basic necessities have enhanced real income in the rural areas. Their economic needs could be addressed, thus spurring growth and generating jobs.”
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‘Secularism in action’: India has four castes — poor, women, youth, farmers, says FM Sitharaman
