NEW DELHI: This week the Delhi assembly would reassemble for the second session of the 8th house. During the inaugural session, the spirit of the Bharatiya Janata Party trouncing the ruling Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) pervaded the house. BJP leadership played well to further discredit the AAP benches by placing the long overdue Comptroller and Auditor General’s (CAG) report on the table of the house.
AAP benches, probably dishevelled with the defeat of its top leadership in the polls, acted in an incongruous manner trying to bring street activism on the floor of the house. It failed in either having an impact on the floor of the House or bearing on the roads of Delhi.
In the run-up to the Budget session, the Leader of Opposition Atishi Marlena has done well to participate in the initiatives taken by the Speaker of the House Vijender Gupta to orient the MLAs about the house functioning. The training session, which was inaugurated by Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla, hopefully would have imbibed among the AAP MLAs the need to discuss and debate serious issues inside the house rather than protest over inanities.
On the other hand the Budget session would end the period of honeymoon which the Rekha Gupta government had been enjoying thus far. The season for the receiving and presenting of the bouquets is over and it’s time for hard business with the presentation of the Budget.
Given the poll narrative, Chief Minister Gupta, who also is the Finance Minister, would be needed to do a fine balancing between ‘Vikas’ and ‘Kalyan’ (development and welfare).
The preceding government of Atishi for a few months and that of Arvind Kejriwal for almost 10 years preferred Kalyan over Vikas and went for unbridled welfarism leading to a culture of freebies.
BJP in its manifesto has not taken a stand against the freebies. Prime Minister Narendra Modi, while leading the poll campaign earlier this year, gave a ‘guarantee’ that the freebies would not be stopped.
However, the BJP also went on to focus on ending corruption in government and reviving the culture of development reminiscent of the Sheila Dikshit era, though they did not mention her name as she belonged to the Congress party.
The analysis of the poll results shows that despite a large difference in the seats, the difference in the vote percentage between the AAP and the BJP is marginal, and if the Congress were not in the play, probably AAP would have returned to power for the third time. A scrutiny of the seats won too show that ‘Vikaswalas’ (those for development) went with the BJP, whereas those living on Kalyan (freebies) have stood by the AAP.
In this scenario, the first budget to be presented by Rekha Gupta has to take courage to wean away public finances from never ending freebies to the cause of development. The Chief Minister has done well to say that the Budget would focus on improving the quality of life.
She made this announcement following a meeting with the BJP MLAs to gauge their inputs on the issue.
In a post on microblogging site X, the Chief Minister’s Office said, “Chief Minister Rekha Gupta said the budget will not be limited to the figures, rather it will be a medium to raise the living standards of the people of Delhi, strengthen basic facilities and fuelling development. It will meet the needs of every section of the society.”
Taking a cue from what Gupta said after the meeting, hopefully suitable budgetary allocations would be made for strengthening basic facilities like water supply, sewerage and proper roads. Resuscitation of the public transport system, specially the Delhi Transport Corporation find adequate allocations.
Theatrics and posturing on Yamuna could continue, but those in the administration know if we clean the city, the river too gets cleaned.
The BJP government will present, what it wants to call a ‘Viksit Dilli’ Budget for 2025-26, which is estimated to be “around Rs 80,000 crore.” For Viksit Dilli, Budget would have to push to deliver modern infrastructure, a clean environment, quality education, better health facilities, new job opportunities, and more.
But then there is Modi’s guarantee of retaining all the freebies which the AAP government doled out in the past 10 years and give even more. Delhi would need funds to keep a balance between Vikas and Kalyan; for this the Union Government would have be large hearted and give grants in plenty.
After all it’s the Prime Minister who has to ensure a balance between Vikas and Kalyan.
Sidharth Mishra
Author and president, Centre for Reforms, Development & Justice
