Rajesh Kumar Sethi
PM Modi may organise celebrations of GST and Income Tax “relief,” but the ground reality is very different from the stage-managed rhetoric.
1. Middle Class Betrayal
•The Indian middle class, which Modi claims to champion, is today paying higher indirect taxes than ever before.
•Fuel, food, school fees, medicines, insurance, electricity bills, tolls — all are taxed heavily under GST. Even after so-called rationalisation, the daily burden on middle-class households is rising, not reducing.
•Congress’ view is clear: “Relief in tax slabs” does not matter if inflation eats away the real income.
2. Corporate-Friendly, Not Citizen-Centric
•In 2019, Modi gave away Rs 1.84 lakh crore to corporates through tax cuts, claiming it would boost jobs and wages.
•Reality: Corporates pocketed record profits but did not increase salaries beyond inflation. Middle-class savings shrank, unemployment rose, and the government lost precious revenue that could have gone into schools, hospitals, and jobs.
•Who gained? A handful of billionaire cronies. Who suffered? The honest taxpayer and the small consumer.
3. Rising Inequality
•India under Modi is seeing the fastest widening gap between the rich and the middle/poor.
•While Ambanis and Adanis multiply their wealth, the middle class struggles with EMIs, fees, healthcare costs, and shrinking savings.
•The so-called “GST Bachat” is nothing but a photo-op, when real wages are stagnant and consumption is falling.
4. False Narrative of ‘Nagrik Devo Bhava’
•For 11 years, Modi government has treated the ordinary citizen as a source of revenue extraction — not as “devo bhava.”
•Middle class pays tax honestly, but gets no pension guarantee, no job security, poor healthcare, poor education, poor infrastructure.
•What Modi calls “relief” is actually returning a fraction of what was unjustly taken away in the first place.
5. Congress’ Alternative
•Congress believes in Nyay for Middle Class:
•Reduce GST on essentials like education, healthcare, transport, insurance.
•Ensure real job creation by supporting MSMEs, not just mega corporates.
•Link tax relief to actual wage growth and inflation indexing.
•Expand social security for the urban middle class who today feel abandoned.
In short, Modi’s “GST Bachat Utsav” is another headline management exercise. The middle class does not need slogans; it needs real income, affordable living, and secure futures.
Congress will continue to fight for that.
In fact, what PM Modi is doing today reminds me of Rajesh Khanna’s film Aaj Ka MLA Ram Avtar. In one famous scene, the MLA says: “Hum tax teen guna badhaenge… jab log chillayenge toh use do guna kar denge… aur phir log humse khush ho jaayenge.”
This is exactly Modi’s model — first squeeze the people with heavy taxes, price rise, and GST on essentials; then roll back a little and declare it as a big favour. The middle class is not truly benefitting, it is being tricked into clapping for its own exploitation.
Rajesh Kumar Sethi,
National Coordinator, AICC Minority Department Incharge of Manipur.