'Pleasing allies': Southern discomfort over neglect in Modi 3.0 Budget proposals

(L-R) Kerala CM Pinarayi Vijayan, Tamil Nadu CM MK Stalin and Telangana CM Revanth Reddy have criticised the Union Budget. (Courtesy: PTI)

The Union Budget is fuelling political opposition in several of the southern states as the perception that economic largesse is being distributed to other states for political reasons is growing. Except for Andhra Pradesh - its ruling party, the Telugu Desam Party (TDP), being an ally in the Union NDA government - all other southern state heads have termed the Union budget as catering to vote-bank politics.

The BJP might have only wanted to please its allies, the TDP in Andhra Pradesh and the JD(U) in Bihar, but the fact that other states in the South are being ruled by parties opposed to the BJP is giving the whole controversy a worrying north-south dimension.

Indeed, Telangana Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy is talking of bringing together other chief ministers in the South to take on the Centre over the Union Budget allocations, delimitation of Parliamentary Constituencies, central funds, Centre-state relationship, what states are getting back from GST etc.

In protest, Tamil Nadu Chief Minister MK Stalin was the first to announce the boycott of the upcoming NITI Aayog Governing Council meeting convened by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on July 27. "I will boycott it. It will only be appropriate to boycott a Union government’s meeting as Tamil Nadu was boycotted (in the Union Budget)," Stalin said addressing the media on Tuesday. He also remarked, to a question, that as there was no mention of Tamil Nadu or Tamil in the Union budget and he presumed that 'they' are angry with the people of the state, post Lok Sabha election results.

Stalin's argument that there were only announcements to satisfy regional allies, though without any guarantee they will be implemented, finds resonance in Karnataka, where Chief Minister Siddaramaiah similarly announced the boycott of the July 27 meeting. He said that Modi was unable to see beyond Andhra Pradesh and Bihar as his eyes were only fixed on the position of Prime Minister and he hoped the people of Karnataka would stand by the state government.

"Despite my earnest efforts in calling for an all-party MPs meeting in New Delhi to discuss Karnataka's essential needs, the Union Budget has neglected our state's demands," fumed Siddaramaiah, in a statement on X.

The Union Budget has renewed the tussle between Telangana and Andhra Pradesh just when they were coming together to solve outstanding issues. While the Union Budget has earmarked a special financial package of ₹15,000 crore for the development of the new capital city of Amaravati, neighbouring Telangana got nothing.

A livid Revanth Reddy termed the Union Budget as 'kursi bachao budget' and the allocations to Andhra Pradesh and Bihar as 'nazrana'. Criticising the allocations Reddy said, "The word Telengana was banned in the entire Budget. The Centre does not like to utter Telangana. People of Telangana never expected the Centre to pursue a vindictive approach against the state." He remarked that Telengana was not part of Viksit Bharat as far as Modi was concerned.

Earlier this month, Reddy and Andhra Pradesh CM N Chandrababu Naidu met to work out and resolve the outstanding issues between the two states that have been bickering since the formation of Telangana in 2014. Naidu is the political mentor of Reddy and they share a good rapport. There was much hope in resolving the issues between the two states. But, the allocation to Andhra Pradesh has dampened the hope.

Naidu has also come in for criticism from his opposition for his inability to get special category status for Andhra Pradesh, despite the Union government depending on the TDP's alliance. Budget mentioned that ₹15,000 would be "arranged", but it does not mean allocated, they say. There are fears that this might not be anything more than facilitating loans from multilateral lending agencies.

Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan joined the state opposition, taking strong objection to his state not getting a mention in the Union Budget, which according to him was a "survival ploy". "Many states, including Kerala, are being ignored in the Budget. Though we do not oppose the announcements of development projects in specific states, we cannot accept the complete neglect of other states. This approach will hinder the progress of states like Kerala. It challenges the people of Kerala that the continuous demands regarding some important projects were completely disregarded," Pinarayi said in a statement.

Far from satisfying the South, the Budget might have worsened the ties of the opposition-ruled states with the Centre. It might also have bonded the INDIA bloc stronger.