Yogi’s saffron budget aimed at keeping BJP’s hopes alive for 2019

The Uttar Pradesh Government presented a ₹4.28 lakh crore 'saffron’ budget for 2018, which seems aimed to strengthen Hindutva in the state with the aim of keeping the Bharatiya Janata Party’s hopes for 2019 alive.

The budget tabled by the finance minister Rajesh Agarwal in the assembly is the biggest budget in the state’s history, at ₹4.28 lakh crore, 11.4% higher than the previous budget. Agarwal’s speech was punctuated with references to Lord Ram and Lord Krishna, and delved at length on promoting religious tourism in the state in next one year.

The next year is crucial for Uttar Pradesh. It is clear that the Yogi Government has failed to live up to the expectations of the people. The Modi Government too has become unpoular among traders—once considered as the bulwark of the party’s support— through a cumbersome GST and demonetisation. It is being claimed by some that BJP governments—both in UP and at the Centre—are so unpopular that if elections are held today, the party will be able to win hardly two dozen seats against the 73 won by NDA last time. One thing is clear, if BJP loses UP, it will not be able to form the government at the centre in 2019.

In this scenario, the BJP is left with no other option but to go for revival of the Hindutva wave. A beginning was made at Kasganj. The nondescript town was recently rocked by communal riots. Now the Budget takes forward the Hindutva agenda by launching new religious circuits and identifying new religious tourism destinations.

This all is done despite rising indebtedness of the state government. The fiscal deficit in the financial year 2018-19 is estimated at ₹44,053.32 crore, which is 2.96% of the Gross State Domestic Product. Considering UP has a population of 22 crore, every citizen of the state carries a debt of ₹18,476 crore.

‘Saffron’ Budget Highlights:

• Government has earmarked ₹1,240 crore for Ramayana, Buddhist and Krishna circuit under the Swadesh Darshan Yojana.
• Three more religious circuits—Mahabharata circuit, Shakti Peeth circuit and Jain circuit have been identified and ₹70 crore earmarked.
• ₹100 crore has been earmarked to boost religious tourism in Braj, for which Braj Teerth Vikas Parishad has been constituted.
• The Government has set aside ₹1,500 crore for Kumbh, which will be held in January 2019
• ₹100 crore has been allocated for development of cremation and burial places.
• For the first time UP government has allocated ₹98.5 crore for cow shelters, which includes construction of new ones and renovation of old ones