A dangerous precedent

“In 2017, the Union Budget was used as an instrument of the BJP’s poll agenda. The Budget was presented three days prior to the elections in Punjab and Goa, and 10 days before the Uttar Pradesh elections.” File (Source: The Hindu)

COVID-19 notwithstanding, the Budget session of Parliament will begin on January 31 with the President’s Address, and the Union Budget on February 1.

Traditionally, the Union Budget was presented every year on the last working day of February. However, in 2017, the then Finance Minister Arun Jaitley changed the tradition. He brought the day forward by four weeks, to February 1. The Railway Budget, too, was subjected to similar unwarranted changes under the Modi government. Until 2016, it was presented a few days before the Union Budget. In 2017, the BJP (with only muted objections from the Congress) subsumed the Railway Budget under the Union Budget and ended a 92-year-old practice. Since then, the Railway Budget has bypassed the scrutiny of Parliament. This is just one of the many examples of the Modi government mocking the Lok Sabha and the Rajya Sabha. It was a precursor of parliamentary oversight, which peaked with the draconian farm laws of September 2020.