“Outrage Over Budget Is Actually Fatigue Over Government Messaging”, Swarajyamag, July 24, 2024:
“There is tremendous social media outrage after the budget speech yesterday (23 July). A lot of the noise centres around the middle class not getting any tax cuts. Also, a lot of anger is directed at the removal of indexation for realty investments’ long term capital gains tax — even if the rates have been slashed 7.5 per cent.
While rising living costs does put the lower middle class in a financially precarious position, the angst may not necessarily be about the actual tax rates not being cut. Further, it is not as if the lower middle class doesn’t recognise the challenges inherent in turning around the political economy of a large country such as India’s.
This is the same class that backed the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in all urban centres across India only a few weeks ago. If the lower middle class acknowledges the difficulties and continues to back the government in the hustings, why then are they outraging today? Perhaps, the anger on display in some social media circles is a measure of fatigue with the government’s communications……”
Read the full article at Swarajyamag.com
