Looking ahead

President points to the Budget for explicit policy agenda

Presidential addresses to Parliament ahead of a new Lok Sabha session are more than a constitutional routine because they usually outline the policies and plans of the government for the five years ahead. President Droupadi Murmu’s address to the first joint session of Parliament after the 18th Lok Sabha met for the first time was considered significant on several counts. It took place against the backdrop of a third prime ministerial term for Narendra Modi, but one in which the allies under the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) will play a bigger role in a coalition government for the first time since the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) fell short of a majority on its own. In terms of the broader socio-political discourse, it also came at a time when jobs, especially youth unemployment, have become a hot-button issue and investment by domestic and foreign players has been notably weak. So there were high expectations on policy directions from this speech. In terms of substance, the speech delved in detail on the government’s perception of the regime’s past achievements. It broadly emphasised how India has risen to become the world’s fifth-largest economy from the 11th 10 years ago, and is currently the fastest-growing large economy, a circumstance that was attributed to “Reform, Perform and Transform”. On economic expansion, the speech highlighted the post-Covid annual growth trajectory of 8 per cent between 2021 and 2024.

Overall, the speech touched all the politically correct levers, highlighting the government’s continuing focus on poverty reduction, the green economy, farmers’ and women’s empowerment, and so on. It also boldly referred to issues that had roiled the Opposition in the past. For instance, the speech mentioned the fact that the government had started offering citizenship under the controversial Citizenship Amendment Act, how electronic voting machines had passed the test against fraud in the last elections, and how the reading down of Article 370 has altered the special status of Jammu & Kashmir. Interestingly, the speech did not shy away from promising major reform of examination-related bodies, an indirect reference to the national scandal over the paper leaks in the National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (NEET), conducted under the auspices of a central-government institution.

The President’s address contained strong hints that the government appeared to be reserving its firepower for the upcoming Union Budget. It explicitly stated the Budget would be “an effective document of the government’s far-reaching policies and futuristic vision”. She promised that along with “major economic and social decisions, many historic steps will also be seen in this Budget”. She said it would accelerate the pace of reform “in tune with the aspirations of people of India for rapid development”. The key to this, apparently, was promoting healthy competition among the states to attract investors from all over the world —“in the true spirit of competitive cooperative federalism”. In the current configuration of the Lok Sabha, the debate over the motion of thanks on the President’s address was expected to be a spirited one. But the Opposition may be better advised to wait for the Budget.