Uttar Pradesh budget: With Modi ‘GYAN’ in arsenal, Yogi 2.0 govt targets 2024 bullseye

The biggest-ever Uttar Pradesh budget, presented in the state assembly just ahead of the Lok Sabha polls, showcases the Yogi 2.0 government’s commitment to Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s “GYAN” while unveiling the contours of “naya (new) UP” and Yogi Adityanath’s promise of “utsav, udyog aur umeed (celebrations, industry and hope).”

GYAN is an abbreviated coinage by Modi denoting ‘gareeb (poor), yuva (youth), annadata (farmers) and narishakti (women power)’ — the four key voter classes towards whom the ₹7,36,437.71 crore budget is clearly tilted.

The budget exercise was undertaken when the BJP is working to ensure that euphoria centered around Ram temple opening on January 22 stretches till the elections due in April-May. Both Adityanath as well as his cabinet’s senior minister Suresh Khanna, who presented the budget, said that the budget was devoted to “Bhagvan Ram.”

Yogi Adityanath, whose government is the first to present eight consecutive budgets under the same chief minister in U.P, mentioned that care has been taken to ensure that the common man hasn’t been burdened with additional taxes. He said the entire budgetary exercise with “Lord Ram at the beginning, middle and end” was for “Lok Mangal (people’s welfare)”. At the outset of his budget speech, Khanna quickly underlined that the “GYAN” factor was the driving force of the whole exercise.

“It’s true that our exercise is focused on poor, youth, farmers and women,” Khanna said as he spoke in detail about the mammoth exercise, with new schemes worth ₹24, 863.57, a majority of whom are focused on these four voter classes, who are central to the BJP’s plan of a hat-trick of wins at the Centre.

With 80 Lok Sabha seats, UP has delivered big numbers to the BJP’s phenomenal wins since 2014.

Perhaps aware of the growing opposition criticism about unemployment -- Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav, for instance flagged the point after the budget was presented -- Adityanath later explained how unemployment rate had been markedly brought down since 2016-17, the period when Yadav was the chief minister.

“From 19.2 per cent in 2016-17, the unemployment rate has been brought down to 2.4 per cent today,” Adityanath said and spoke of budget’s additional focus on “suraksha (safety), vikas (development) and sushasan (good governance).”

“The budget covers all aspects. The youth will get interest free loans of up to ₹5 lakh for honing their entrepreneurial ability. There is an employment promotion fund to ensure training and internship for unemployed youth. For poor families, especially those from weaker sections, additional allocations have been made to fund marriages of daughters. Religious tourism gets a push. There are separate outlays for farmers and if all this helps the party in elections, so be it,” a U.P. minister said.

“There are various schemes for women, farmers, youth and poor with additional allocations, there are newer schemes to tackle commonplace problems of drainage and water logging, more funds for roads, connectivity. There is additional focus and more funds for animal shelter homes clearly to tackle the issue of strays. All in all, it appears to be a budget that seems to cater to all and because the common man hasn’t been burdened with any new taxes, a sense of optimism is evident,” said professor Manuka Khanna of the political science department of Lucknow University.

Khanna, never short of a couplet to sum up a situation, appeared to be reflecting the budget’s ‘please-all’ outlook ahead of the elections, as he recited a verse during his budget speech.

“Mukt hoon kartavya ki chintaon se, dard se dukh se mujhe araam hai, har kisi ke vaste har vastu hai, yah hamare aishwarya ka paigam hai (Free of the worries of responsibility, I am relieved of pain, sorrow /for everyone there is everything/this is the missive of our prosperity),” Khanna said as Adityanath smiled.