Union Budget: 1.5 crore jobs lost, 30% higher vegetable prices — and solution?

Flagging the issue of economic inequality in India, which is now said to be worse than during the British Raj, the Congress party has demanded that finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman take measures to address this issue in the upcoming Union Budget — set to be her seventh.

Speaking at a press conference in Delhi, party spokesperson Supriya Shrinate highlighted the stark disparity in wealth distribution across the country: “One per cent of the population controls 40 per cent of the country's wealth, causing the rich to become richer while the poor become poorer.”

Shrinate also criticised the successive Narenda Modi-led governments for the poor state of the economy and rising unemployment.

“Due to economic mismanagement, policies like demonetisation, half-baked GST implementation and inefficient Covid management, the economy has suffered a loss of Rs 11.5 lakh crore,” she said.

“The crumbling railings in Gujarat and the influx of people flocking to Mumbai for aviation jobs expose the false claims of this government,” she added, referring to the concerns around rising unemployment across the country.

Finance minister Sitharaman will present her seventh Union budget on 23 July.

"Food inflation has remained consistently above 9 per cent and vegetable prices have increased by more than 30 per cent," Shrinate continued. "It may not matter to the rich, but you have made the vegetables disappear from the plate of the poor. This inflation is everywhere — transport, school fees, garments..."

Shrinate further asserted that “more than 1.5 crore jobs were lost in the country during the last 10 years of the Modi government”, and noted that “the share of contract and contractual workers increased from 19 per cent in 2013 to 43 per cent in 2022" — implying that even those who had jobs lacked job security and the significant employment benefits and protections that accrue to the salaried or tenured employee.

She accused Modi of misleading citizens about 'job creation' too. “Narendra Modi claims that he has created 8 crore jobs. Where are these jobs?” she asked.

Pointing out the agrarian distress faced by farmers, Shrinate stated that due to the economic policies of the previous editions of the Modi government, farmers have been driven to suicide at unprecedented rates.

She held up the example of one farmer, Pushpendra of Jhansi: “In March 2024, Pushpendra, a farmer from Jhansi, Uttar Pradesh, grew peas and wheat on his small piece of land. Like many farmers, he was continuously incurring losses; his income was decreasing while expenses were increasing.

"As a result, he accumulated a debt of about Rs 1.04 lakh. Unable to repay this debt, he eventually committed suicide due to financial crisis,” Shrinate said.

A LocalCircles report notably indicates that 48 per cent of the country's families are facing financial crises, with incomes decreasing and people relying on their savings just to get by.

Shrinate accused the successive NDA governments of crafting budgets to “make a few capitalists richer”, and criticised the finance minister for not conducting pre-budget consultations with farmers demonstrating for a minimum support price (MSP, unemployed youth and low-income citizens' groups — even as she found time to consult with bankers and industralists.