At a press conference on February 1, 2024, following the presentation of Interim Budge by Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, P Chidambaram, former Finance Minister, who presented a record 11 Union budgets, said: "By deliberate neglect over the last 10 years, the government has destroyed the demographic dividend story and dashed the hopes of millions of youth and their families. It is a government of the rich, by the rich and for the rich. The government is either ignorant or callous to the fact that the top 10% owns 60% of the nation's wealth and earns 57% of the national income and that income inequality has widened significantly in the last 10 years." He charged the budget to be silent on rampant unemployment and falling per capita income. India is behind its neighbours in macroeconomic indicators such as per capita income growth and capital efficiency. Its per capita income growth is the second lowest in the region. India is rubbing shoulders with Nepal and is worse off than Pakistan, Bangladesh, and Bhutan in terms of incremental capital income ratio.

In a study conducted by Omar Karlsson of Duke University, USA, and Rockli Kim, a public health researcher from Korea, based on the Union Health Ministry's survey for 2019-2021, the 'zero-food' children - infants aged between six months and 24 months - who had nothing to eat for an entire day, that is 24 hours, amount to about 7 million. This is the third highest (19.3%) among 92 countries, after Guinea and Mali. The figures are much lower in Bangladesh (5.6%), Nigeria (8.8%) and Ethiopia (14.8%).

In his column in The Sunday Express, February 26, 2023, Chidambaram wrote: "The bottom 50 per cent of the people own just 3 per cent of the wealth … the Global Multidimensional Poverty Index estimated that 16 per cent of the population of India (22.4 crores) is poor… in the Global Hunger Index 2022, India slipped from rank 101 to 107 of 123 countries …the widespread prevalence of anaemia among women (57%) and child stunting (36%) and child-wasting (19%) among children under age 5 … malnourishment is the main cause of anaemia, stunting and wasting … the Budget for POSHAN (mid-day meal scheme) in 2023-24 was reduced by Rs. 1,200 crores… the subsidy for food has been cut by a humongous sum of Rs. 80,000 crores in 2023-24 … the subsidy for fertilisers has been cut by Rs. 60,000 crores in 2023-24 … there are 1,17,000 schools that are single-teacher schools and nearly 16% (16,630) of such schools are in Madhya Pradesh alone ... there are 84,405 vacancies in the Central Armed Police Force … In the 23 IITs, there are 3,253 vacant teaching posts … in the 55 central universities, there are 6,180 vacant teaching posts … the posts are vacant because there are no qualified teachers or no money to employ them."

The so-called welfare schemes are a camouflage to cover up the all-round failure of the government. The beneficiaries of MGNREGA and PDS, the schemes supposed to benefit the people at the bottom of the social pyramid, are required to digitise their Aadhar Cards to avail themselves of the benefits. Consequently, millions of illiterate and semi-literate disposed and deprived sections - the poorest of the poor - who ought to be the claimants of the benefits are denied them because of their inability to understand the digitisation process, nor do they have the wherewithal necessary for it. False, inflated, and fudged figures are thrown up to show the success of the government's welfare schemes, like direct benefit transfer (DBT), Ujjwala scheme, etc., to name a few. There is no money in most of the DBT bank accounts. Similarly, much publicised free LPG connections to the BPL families under the Ujjwala scheme are a miserable failure, as the people cannot fill the cylinders due to exorbitant price increases.

The Indian Railways - the largest national transporter - is mismanaged, with lakhs of posts remaining vacant. The ordinary citizens' travel on the Railways is pathetic. While the government talks of bullet trains, new Vande Bharats, more AC coaches, etc., to benefit the better off, the ordinary passengers travel in general coaches in appalling conditions. In connivance with the railway officials, the touts and travel agents grab reservation seats, making a killing in online reservation rackets. The Tatkal booking service is just not accessible to the poor.

Rahul Gandhi, who is on a Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra, has alleged: "Amidst a 10 per cent increase in fare every year, loot in the name of dynamic fare, rising cancellation charges and expensive platform tickets, people are being lured by showing them a picture of an elite train that the poor cannot even set foot on, the government has collected Rs. 3,700 crore from senior citizens in three years by snatching away the exemptions to them. The common people are made to languish to give precedence to the trains selected for publicity. A substantial amount of public money is spent to create selfie points at important railway stations to promote Narendra Modi when the Railways do not have money to provide even basic facilities and improve the passengers' travelling conditions. And the poor and middle-class passengers are left out of the railways' priority. While increasing the number of AC coaches, the number of general coaches is reduced". (FPJ 4/3)

The Modi government is indeed a government of the rich, by the rich, and for the rich, as demonstrated by how the three-day (1-3 March) pre-wedding ceremonies of the son of a billionaire are conducted. Bollywood and Hollywood celebs and famous persons from various walks of life all converged in Jamnagar, Gujarat, for the pre-wedding celebrations of Anant Ambani, son of Mukesh Ambani, CMD, Reliance Industries Ltd. Bill Gates, Microsoft Founder; Mark Zuckerberg, Meta CEO, along with his wife, Ivanka Trump with her family, and almost all the stars of Bollywood have converged at the ceremony, with the Khans of Bollywood - Salman, Shah Rukh and Aamir - set the dance floor on fire. Rihanna was paid a whopping 5 million sterling pounds for her dazzling performance. It was a display of pomp and show by the wealthiest man in a country where more than 80 crore dispossessed people depend on the government's free ration for survival, who have no access to a good public health system and whose children are deprived of quality public education and in a country where the unemployment is at an all-time high, with more than 42% graduates unemployed, facing a grim uncertain future, which is aggravated due to lakhs of posts in central and state governments lying vacant.

The Modi government collaborated with the wedding bash of Anant Ambani and Radhika Merchant. It was a star-studded showbiz spectacle, displaying stinking wealth and the power of the business and entertainment world. The Hindu (2/3) reported that the Jamnagar airport was declared an international airport for 10 days (February 25 to March 5). As global bigwigs descended on the Gujarati city for the three-day pre-wedding bash, the Union Health Ministry, Finance Ministry, and Home Ministry went out of the way and pressed for resources to set up a Customs and Immigration facility at the airport. The Airports Authority of India (AAI) erected a passenger terminal building. And the Air Force permitted access to its sensitive 'technical' area. One hundred and forty aircraft movements were allowed against the usual six movements at the airport. In preparation for the massive inflow of guests, the AAI expanded the size of its passenger building from 475 sq. m. to 900 sq. m., allowing it to accommodate nearly 360 passengers compared to 180 earlier. The airport also enhanced manpower; 35 housekeeping staff were added to the existing strength 16, and ground handling agencies were raised to 125 from 65 agencies.

This special treatment of a select few corporates could happen only in Modi's India. In today's India, some enjoy privileges unavailable to ordinary folk. They are above and beyond the law. The nexus between the Modi government and billionaire Mukesh Ambani is obvious. Crony capitalism and corporate oligarchy monopolise and control practically every domain. This explains, in a way, the ruling party's monetary power and the opposition's unequal electoral battle.