Samajwadi Party (SP) chief Akhilesh Yadav is furious that Union Finance Minister (FM) Nirmala Sitharaman did not mention Uttar Pradesh (UP) during her speech on the Budget last Tuesday. There is ‘peanut provision’ in the 2024 Union Budget for UP at a time when education, health and employment in the most populous province in the country desperately needs to be upgraded.
The youth wants permanent jobs and not short-term measures like internships, said Yadav who wondered if reservation will be allowed for the short-term employment initiatives.
The Budget 2024 has disappointed the Opposition political parties including Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP). Mayawati, the BSP supremo, said that the Budget was a disappointment for the poor, unemployed, farmers, women, marginalised and the neglected bahujan communities. Mayawati wants employment opportunities for all citizens, and an income that will provide relief from the distressed lives led by people today.
Meanwhile UP Chief Minister Adityanath saw the Union Budget 2024 as a “public welfare budget that will make Ram Rajya”, a reality in UP. In a tweet, the CM expressed heartfelt gratitude to the Prime Minister (PM) and congratulated the FM for the public welfare budget that paves the way to make the 'New India' a five trillion dollar economy and the growth engine of the world!
That is what the CM said in public. However in private, the CM is engaged in a struggle for survival with the PM which threatens to cost him his office.
The CM’s praise of the Budget comes at a time when the literacy rate of UP is alarming. According to the 2011 Census it is 71 percent. For males it is 79 percent and 59 percent for women.
The public health system is limping in UP and is inadequate to cope with the ill health of most citizens who live under challenging circumstances today. Alternative health care is a rapidly growing, but largely unregulated private system, that is often not cost effective.
Economic hardship and difficult living conditions is the reality in UP. The uncertain economy is based mainly on rural activities and where about 65 percent of the total population depends on agriculture for its livelihood.
Under the circumstances the Union Budget has brought little relief to farmers and the youth of UP. The state remains the home of perhaps the poorest of the poor in the country. Yet the state’s political importance cannot be undermined.
Uttar Pradesh has 80, the largest number of legislatures in the Lok Sabha. It is the home of PM Narendra Modi’s parliamentary constituency. Ayodhya, an important place of pilgrimage, is in UP. The idea of Ram Rajya is inspired by Ayodhya, believed to be the place of birth of Lord Rama.
“To me Ram Rajya means a roof over my head and food in my stomach,” a resident of Ayodhya told The Citizen during a conversation on the phone.
The objection is that the financial needs of the states of Bihar and Andhra Pradesh were reflected in the budget, but UP was not even mentioned by the finance minister. Why?
Step Motherly Treatment
According to political analysts, the citizens of UP are paying for the political rivalry between Lucknow and Delhi. The step motherly treatment of UP is Delhi’s way of showing its wrath towards Adityanath.
The CM is not seen as toeing the line being forced upon him by the Central government. That is the complaint of Delhi about Lucknow.
The CM in Lucknow is blamed by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) satraps in Delhi for the poor performance of the party in UP in the last Lok Sabha elections. The number of seats of the BJP in the Lok Sabha dropped from 62 won in the 2019 elections to 33 in the 2024 elections.
The CM is blamed for having weakened the social coalition built by the BJP in UP of non-Yadav other backward castes (OBCs) and non-Jatav Dalits. In the blame game of the political titans, citizens are left to cope with floods, unaffordable prices of food and fuel prices and unemployment on their own.
The state of the economy is grim as UP struggles to generate jobs for youngsters entering the labour market in times of increased privatisation. While the services sector has expanded, it is not as labour intensive as its manufacturing counterpart.
Unemployment remains persistent in the countryside and for college graduates in cities who also face a mismatch of skills and expectations. The 2024 report released by the Institute for Human Development (IHD) and International Labour Organisation (ILO), paints a grim picture of unemployment conditions.
Over the last three years, the government has spent on roads, bridges and other infrastructure as a way to boost the economy and to create jobs but none of it has translated into making life a little more happy in UP.
Unaffordable Lentils
At the moment wages are stagnant but inflation has skyrocketed. The price of arhar dal, a lentil that is a favourite of both the rich and poor in UP is priced at an obnoxiously high price. The thought of unemployment makes citizens angry.
One resident in Lucknow wonders if it is worth spending money on educating children if there is little chance of them finding a job. The trend is frustrating for students who pay exorbitant fees to study for competitive exams for several years.
But on the day of the examination to secure a government job, the question papers are leaked and the process is cancelled. In recent times the number of vacancies for secure government jobs has also been reduced drastically, adding to feelings of insecurity amongst citizens, especially the ballooning number of unemployed youngsters.
The Dreaded Decree
The recent decree of the CM to display nameplates of eatery owners on the Kanwar Yatra, the pilgrimage route, has only added to the anxiety of the unemployed in UP. However, the Supreme Court has put on hold the order of the UP government that is facing legal challenges and concerns of communal bias of officials in the state.
The economic repercussions for non-Hindu businesses could prove to be grave in an already insecure environment in UP.