Choose wisely, FM tells first-time voters ahead of elections

The spirit of fighting for political independence has to be taken up by the newer generation to achieve “economic independence and economic atmanirbharta”, the Finance Minister said.

Speaking at the Hindu College on ‘Empowering the Youth: Building the Foundations of a Viksit Bharat’, Sitharaman said the two pillars to empower students towards Viksit Bharat are values — civilisational and nationalistic — along with skills and technology.

Terming the Pran Pratishtha on January 22 as an “important civilisational marker”, Sitharaman said, “Today we see the generations before us who have not seen the fortunate moment, through our eyes, are able to see the restoration of civilisational values as we have seen on the 22nd (January).”

In the upcoming elections, Sitharaman told the students to choose wisely. “We can’t afford a democracy, where we as voters remain indifferent to manifestos, which are forgotten soon after people come to power,” she said.

Citing the college’s participation in the struggle for Independence against the British, including the role played by one of the hostel wardens in sheltering freedom fighter Chandrasekhar Azad, she told students: “Your history should be our future”.

Referring to a time when even a telephone or a gas cylinder connection would require a recommendation from a Member of Parliament, Sitharaman said no urgency was seen in the first 50 years of India’s Independence to provide basic necessities to the citizens in spite of the “excellent energy” with which India wanted to grow after 1947.

“In 2014, there were still a huge number of them waiting for houses, water, electricity. And when I say huge numbers, more than 50 percent of those who deserved it, were still without one,” she said.

Since 2014, the government has worked towards providing houses, drinking water, electricity, and roads with a sense of urgency, she said, adding that now there is near-saturation in meeting these fundamental needs of the poor.

“Unless we empower our citizens, not just to vote, but also to say: yes, my basic needs are available, not because I am entitled to it, but everybody has got it, so I have also got it…that’s the underlying principle with which between 2014 and today we have done (that) with a sense of urgency,” she said.

Sitharaman said that the “material foundation (for Viksit Bharat) is already laid”, but newer areas also need to be given priority for the youth. “For the growing population, growing youth, who need more skills, who need to upgrade their skills, who need to see those opportunities which are available…you need newer areas to also get priority. That’s why we have placed importance on sunrise sectors. We want these newer centres of excellence which we are building for AI (artificial intelligence), newer areas which are old but the methodologies will have to change (like) forensic sciences,” she said.

The government is looking at giving high priority to 13 sunrise sectors in manufacturing, including renewable energy, semiconductors, machine learning, material sciences, earth sciences, space, among others, not just for the Budget, but also towards strengthening R&D and bringing in experts from other areas, Sitharaman said. She also said that agriculture continues to retain its primacy, with the government looking at strengthening the sector and modernising the post-harvest practices.

When asked about the negative discourse in Indian politics, Sitharaman said the public narrative is “quite vitiated”, citing the example of debate around the Indian economy. “I’ll just give you a random example – India is the fastest growing (economy), every sector of India is moving fast, the stock market is doing very well, companies that are listed whose accounts are available for public to view are doing well, higher dividends are being given. But in spite of that the narrative would be ‘Indian economy is not very well, it is sick, there are some sectors which are suffering, there is a K-shaped recovery’. Hang on.”

“For those who say all this, I want them to stand up and say on what basis are they saying it. But they won’t be available for you to answer. They throw that idea and go away,” she said.

The Finance Minister’s comments come at a time when the Indian economy is estimated to post a higher-than-expected economic growth of 7.3 per cent in 2023-24, according to the first advance estimates of the National Statistical Office released earlier this month. Economists, however, contend that India’s post-pandemic recovery has been uneven or K-shaped with demand in urban areas outstripping demand in rural areas. Although rural inflation has tapered off in the 14 months till October, real rural wages had contracted in 21 of the previous 23 months.