Modi govt starving state of funds for Central projects

It is ironic that the BJP-led NDA government has reportedly embarked on a dangerous plan to starve the Congress government, headed by Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu, of funds relating to Central projects and share in taxes to denigrate it in the eyes of people.

Financial experts say the BJP might have twin purposes behind this. First, by squeezing the state government of funds, an impression will percolate to the grassroots level in the state as well as beyond that the Sukhu government is incompetent to handle financial matters and, hence, unable to even pay salaries and pensions to employees on time.

Second, the BJP is hell bent on deriving political mileage out of the non-fulfillment of the 10 guarantees which were promised by top leaders of the Congress during the Assembly polls in 2022, primarily responsible for dethroning the previous government. Contrary to it, the Chief Minister claims that a majority of the promises have been fulfilled in the span of two years.

Senior leaders of the state BJP as well as top Central leaders projected the “failure” of the Sukhu government to pay salaries and pensions as an evidence of mismanagement and inefficiency, hence appealed to Haryana voters not to give any chance to the Congress. Field reports suggest the RSS took this campaign right up to village level and Congress leaders could not effectively counter this propaganda.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi had targeted the Congress in his Hisar rally on August 29 and taken a jibe at the Gandhi family. It is learnt that the BJP has planned to exploit Sukhu government’s financial crisis during the coming Assembly polls in Maharashtra and Jharkhand which may include new controversy about the abolishing of 1.20 lakh non-functional posts, though the CM has vehemently denied it.

The CM and his ministers have taken on the state BJP leaders as well as the Prime Minister, BJP national president Nadda etc for intentionally delaying the rightful share of taxes of Rs 23,000 crore, Rs 9,300 crore of the previous year’s Post Disaster Need Assessment Fund etc of the state government. They have been accusing state BJP leaders of creating a hindrance in the timely release of the Central funds which was an open secret. Nadda, former Union minister and MP, Anurag Thakur state president Dr Rajiv Bindal and Opposition leader, Jai Ram Thakur, have lambasted the Sukhu government for “misleading” the people about the Centre’s financial assistance.

The CM blamed the previous BJP government for fiscal management, which had enhanced debt liabilities to a whopping Rs, 90,000 crore. The salaries and pensions were released on October 28 which is being dubbed by the CM as “Diwali gift”, but any optimism about improvement in the financial crisis seems remote.

One thing is certain that the Modi government is unlikely to relent till it achieves its “latent mission of toppling the elected government in the state.

—The writer is a senior political analyst based in Shimla