Will promises of rice/wheat at Rs 2/kg help win votes?
Published on Mon, Apr 13, 2009 at 17:05 | Source : CNBC-TV18
Updated at Mon, Apr 20, 2009 at 17:55
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Will promises of rice/wheat at Rs 2/kg help win votes?
The major election manifestos, which contain lots of promises, are now public documents. These manifestos tell us about the parties and the picture that emerges of Indian democracy.
Q: In other words you are talking of a luxury consumption tax? Jha: No, add one little section to your income tax act and any say any decline in your savings during the current year will be taxed.
Q: Do the middle classes respond to tax sops because it is not just the income tax paying middle class but also the defence services who maybe exempted altogether. Do people respond to tax when they make up their mind how to vote? Yadav: There is no evidence to suggest that these measures of any kind get you vote in the very short run. But as I said it is all about overall image. The thing that should worry the BJP is that the overall image that you get through their manifesto about who the ordinary person is and who they are trying to address. Is that of a middle class? The point is that you not give them one thing or what the cost of that is but if that thing recurs in what appears to be the youth for you, what is education for you, what is women for you then this should be something that ought to worry a national party.
