After 75 years of independence, India faces serious challenges. Do we prioritize the use of public funds to develop human potential, or do we abandon public funds in corporate tax cuts and corporate loan write-offs in the hope of causing social upheaval? It’s a problem. A virtuous cycle of development?
That is the question at the heart of the ongoing freebies vs Revdi politics debate with Prime Minister Narendra Modi make a veiled barb In the welfare model of Delhi Prime Minister Arvind Kejriwal and Aam Aadmi Party.
During the last seven years of its rule in Delhi, the AAP government has created a distinct welfare model that prioritizes investments in Delhi citizens. Transforming public education and public health care is at the heart of the AAP’s welfare model. Delhi Public Schools has the physical infrastructure, the provision of world-class training for principals and teachers at reputed institutions such as IIMs in India and abroad, and the innovative curriculum that has transformed the quality of learning in India. We are making unprecedented changes in terms of classroom.
As a result, public schools in Delhi now consistently outperform private schools, with nearly 400,000 children transferring from private to public schools. The change has caught the world’s attention, with former U.S. First Lady Melania Trump choosing to visit the ‘Happiness Class’ at Delhi Public Schools in 2020, The New York Times has done. Front page features On how the AAP government’s education model is changing the lives of millions of poor families in Delhi.
The establishment of a universal health care system under the AAP government in Delhi also presents a unique model. More than 500 Mohala clinics provide free diagnostics, medicines and tests to approximately 65,000 people each day. And 38 public hospitals provide free, high-quality care to hundreds of thousands of patients each year, regardless of income level or cost of care. A major expansion is underway, doubling the capacity of clinics and hospitals to his by 2025. This is by no means cheap. The AAP government spends his 40% of its budget on education and health. This is the highest figure of any government in India.
Delhi’s AAP government also provides free electricity and water subsidies up to certain consumption, spending nearly 5% of its budget on these two schemes. These targeted subsidies not only make Delhi’s most vulnerable citizens more productive, but also help enable them to live lives of dignity. It is the only country in India to operate an annual revenue surplus budget for the last five years, doubling the budget from Rs 30,000 to Rs 60,000 during this period.
Compare this with spending by the BJP governments in Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh (three most prominent examples of the BJP’s welfare model). These governments have spent just 18-20% of their budgets on the education and health sectors over the past decade. We do not claim to provide free, quality education or a public healthcare system for all. Each of these states, like the rest of India, continues to migrate students from government to private schools, and in Gujarat alone, many public schools have closed over the past decade. Accessing public schools and hospitals in these states is a sign of deprivation, not a choice.
Nationally, the BJP government has also consistently underperformed its investment targets in the education and health sector. Ayushman Bharat Yojana (PMJAY) has been touted as a silver bullet to meet the public health needs of the masses, but without ensuring an accessible and quality health care infrastructure across India, the private sector-led insurance model It covers only part of the population. The pandemic has exposed the shortcomings of this approach. India ranked 94th out of 107 countries in the 2020 World Hunger Index and 131st in the UN Human Development Index.
Does skimping on education and health mean that the BJP-controlled states and centers are doing well financially? Not if you look at their budgets. The UP government declared a budget deficit of Rs 81,000 for 2022-23, while Gujarat and MP declared deficits of Rs 36,000 and Rs 52,000 respectively. The CAG even notes that Gujarat is at risk of falling into a debt trap.
But what we all worry about is central government finances. Since 2015, its total debt has ballooned from his Rs.53 lakh to his Rs.1.36 lakh. A series of corporate tax cuts has sapped huge sums of revenue at a time when India’s unemployment rate has reached its highest level in his 45 years. About Rs 10 crore of bad debts of wealthy companies have been written off. This is done largely from the books of public sector banks, which operate under close government oversight, with little impact on 12,265 willful defaulters.
So, this is the conclusion of the giveaway politics debate. Prime Minister Modi and his BJP’s welfare model have consistently downplayed investment in the Indian people, and while there is no model of human development to showcase anywhere in India, they have runaway tax cuts and corporate loan write-offs. Consider it a policy article. faith. At the other end of the spectrum is CM Kejriwal and his AAP welfare model, which sees investment in education, health and basic services for the Indian people as an article of faith to achieve success in Delhi. At the same time, we carefully manage our finances. .
The ongoing debate on revdi politics presents these two very contrasting visions of what makes India great. And that is why it is the most important debate of our time.
The author is Deputy Chairman of the Dialogue Development Committee, Delhi.
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