-The Indian Express It is the rural middle class — which experienced a roughly four-decade spell of prosperity from the 1970s and now has its back to the wall — that’s at the forefront of the agitation against the farm reform laws. Prime Minister Narendra Modi has defended his government’s agricultural reform laws by invoking Chaudhary Charan Singh and pointing to the “dayaniya sthiti (sorry plight)” of marginal farmers. These below-one-hectare cultivators...

-Press note by People’s Action for Employment Guarantee (PAEG) dated 10th February, 2021 In its press note dated 10th February, 2021, People’s Action for Employment Guarantee has noted that the Union Budget 2021-22 largely failed to address the challenge of increasing inequality and declining welfare during the pandemic. For the FY 2021-22, Rs. 73,000 crore has been allocated, which although greater than the original allocation of Rs.61,500 crore for 2020-21, is 34.5...

-Press released by Right to Food Campaign dated 3rd February, 2021 In its press release dated 3rd February, 2021, Right to Food Campaign has stated that the Union Budget 2021-22 reduced financial allocations for crucial social security schemes such as the Integrated Child Development Services (ICDS), midday meals, maternity entitlements, and the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA). Please click here to access the press release. Kindly click here, here, here...

-The Hindu That there is no targeted Employment programme to alleviate the immediate crisis is a matter of concern The Budget, at its simplest, is the government’s tentative income and expenditure statement. Like all financial statements, the devil lies in the fine print. At its broadest, the Budget is a pious statement of the government’s policy and ideological intentions. It is also the government’s statement of how it seeks to tackle the...

-The Telegraph The Union budget is an extended piece of fiction There is one central message of the Narendra Modi government to the people of India from Budget 2021-22: you will have to be ‘atmanirbhar’ because you’re on your own. The Central government does not have your back. In the midst of the worst health and economic crisis the country has faced since Independence, it will not protect you. It will not...