Rajdeep Sardesai says ‘States being penalised for better demographic, economic performance’: How he is wrong and made a fool of himself again

 

The following article was written for OpIndia. Pasting it here for reference:

After receiving a lashing over his hypocrisy (yet again) yesterday, Rajdeep Sardesai woke up to a fresh day wanting to receive the same kind of lashing again. In his infinite quest to sound intellectual about the economy, he blurted out multiple lies in a single tweet. These lies were not borne out of ignorance. They were written out of obedience to his pay masters.

First, he blurts out numbers. That “For every rupee that Maharashtra, TN, Gujarat, UP give centre”, how much do they “get back”. There cannot be a bigger lie than claiming that the states give any money to the centre!

Residents of India, living ofcourse in different states, pay Income Tax/Other taxes to the Government of India. The state governments have no role to play in this collection. Government of India can impose cess and excise duties for income only to GoI and is not duty bound to transfer this to states. Government of India obviously needs money for developmental works, salaries, defence of the country etc.

Likewise, residents of a particular state pay taxes to that particular state government (On Fuel, Liquor, Land, Registrations etc and SGST). For example, in Hyderabad today, the Telangana government earns more per litre on petrol than what the Government of India earns. In addition to this revenue, the Government of India devolves 41% of income received through taxes to the state governments – meaning transfers cash to the state governments.

How is this decided? This is decided through a formula that the Finance Commission provides. The 14^th and 15^th FC were constituted during Modi’s term. The government of India provides terms of reference to the Finance Commission, based on which they come up with a formula that the government is duty bound to implement.

Rajdeep Sardesai claims that states are being “penalised” for “better demographic and economic performance”. Nothing can be farther from the truth. Take a look yourself at how the 15^th FC actually rewards states that have done well on demography and tax effort.

Modi government’s tax efforts have been so robust that in 9 years, a whopping 69.6 lakh crore rupees were devolved to the states as opposed to a parltry 18.5 lakh crores by Sonia Gandhi’s UPA in 10 years.

So, when someone says “Telangana gave 3.68 lakh crores to centre”, it does NOT mean that the government of Telangana did so. It is the residents of Telangana paying their tax to the Government of India. For the taxes that residents of Telangana pay to the government of Telangana, imagine how awkward it will sound if we say “Telangana gave 50,000 crores to Telangana government”!

Rajdeep then suddenly jumps to “Flood hit opposition ruled states and drought hit Karnataka”. We had written a very detailed article back in 2019 itself, when this sick ilk was spreading falsehoods on disaster management. We discussed on how the Modi government enchanced relief for major cyclones like Fani, Titli, Gaja, the Kerala floods. But more importantly, we had highlighted the significant reforms that Prime Minister Modi bought into the National and State Disaster Fund management.

After the Modi government came into power, the total value of funds made available in SDRF for the period of the 14th Finance Commission (2015 to 2020) was increased from the previous INR 33,580 crores to INR 61,220 crores. That’s a startling 88% more money available for any kind of disaster relief.

Rajdeep then suddenly jumps to “Bengal claims MNREGA funds denied”. While on Bengal, remember how Mamata Banerjee even refused to talk to the Prime Minister when cyclone Fani hit the coast and yet money was released to West Bengal by the central government? We digress. Let’s come back to MNREGA. Why is Bengal the only state that has a problem? A good journalist would have done some homework around this, but then Rajdeep is neither good nor a journalist.

In 2022, there were only two state governments who were awaiting a massive amount from the central government – Bihar (1067 crores) and West Bengal (2620 crores). By May 2023, we were informed that Bihar government cancelled a massive 1.23 crore cards because…guess what…they were inactive for years! 

As of October 2023, West Bengal is yet to follow the directives and guidelines that the central government has laid down. West Bengal is the only state in the entire country that refuses to follow the rules regarding MNREGA and Rajdeep does not have the guts to ask Mamata Banerjee why this is the case. Instead, he will blame Modi for Mamata government’s inefficiency.

Just so you all are aware, the overall funds that the Modi government has released to all states in MNREGA has shown a phenomenal, with the highest allocation being done in the COVID year.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi made a powerful 4 minute speech on this “My Tax My Wish” argument – what if the Himalayas says Ganga only belongs to me? Why does the hand go to help the leg when a thorn injures it? Many netizens have often asked where will this argument stop? Will taxes paid by residents of Hyderabad used only for Hyderabad? Will taxes paid by residents of your gated community used only for your gated community? Will the tax you pay be used exclusively for you?

Can a Telangana construct so much if not for workers from Bihar? Can a Karnataka develop so much without workers from UP and Odisha? Can a Noida develop so much without workers from Tamil Nadu? Can our hospitality industry flourish so much without our friends from the North eastern states?

Rajdeep Sardesai, Siddarth Varadarajan, Shekhar Gupta, N.Ram, Dhanya Rajendran – all have made fallacious, divisive and silly arguments on the financial front with the aim of fomenting hatred and creating animosity. Politicians who have made these arguments have been taught a lesson at the elections by the people of India. Unfortunate though that these editors still flourish with their lies.