The Hypocrisy of “Minimum Interference.” Can India Truly Trust PM Modi’s Promise Of Reduced Government Interference When Faced With Increasing Surveillance, Taxes  and Bureaucratic Overreach? Does This Mean Abolishing The Tax Burden On The Middle Class?

On the 78th Independence Day, Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced that his government was committed to reducing its intervention in the lives of India’s middle class. He continued to stress that this group plays a pivotal role in the nation’s development and deserves a quality of life to correspond with.

But this stands in complete contradiction to the realisation of the given policy’s implementation by his administration. Such a promise of “minimum interference” is becoming hollow by the day, particularly in the face of fast-growing governmental control, surveillance, and overreach of a mammoth interventionist bureaucracy. Instead of reducing the government’s intrusion in the daily lives of ordinary people, the Modi administration’s tax policies and economic strategies have only increased the burden on the middle class, making their lives more difficult than ever.

There has been a definite decrease in civil freedoms under Narendra Modi’s rule. The right to speak out has been narrowed by more harassment and censorship of those in dissent. Besides, the tight control by the government of the media and public discourse does not affirm a minimum interference kind of policy.

However, once placed against some high-profile policies and practices campaigning against it, the claim to reduce the footprint of government nosiness or interference has started to come under serious doubt. The Modi government has taken the flake of ‘national security’ as an excuse for interfering in lots of what is done in everyday life, others with efficiencies, and others with economic reform.

Heavy Taxes, A Direct Interference

Minimal interference would mean less bureaucratic control, fewer regulations, and a lighter tax burden, so citizens could manage their lives more freely. Under Modi’s government, it has evolved into a complex structure of control and intrusion that invades every life.

GST on Essentials

The Goods and Services Tax has been the crowning glory of an expanded state’s interference into the daily transactions of the middle class.

What the Indians were promised was simplification of the tax system. In reality, what came to replace this oppressive taxation was a maze of tax rates applying even to basic needs. Beginning from packaged foods to body maintenance to some lifesaving medicines, everything attracts GST, which makes it impossible to avoid the grasp of the government for middle-class families. This is a direct contradiction of the promise of minimal interference.

The income tax regime has also continued to nail the middle class in Modi’s regime. While minor alterations have made a difference, tax rates remain really high, and a new tax regime offered with lesser deductions has not turned out to be the respite that was envisaged.

With increased living costs, these middle-class citizens struggle with less disposable income, further straining them financially. Such continued pressure from the income tax is another form of interference that has direct impacts on how people manage their finances.

Government Spending and Mismanagement- Indirect Interference

It does not stop at direct taxation. The way the government spends the tax revenue also has huge implications on how the middle class lives. Ideally, a government that claims to minimize interference would ensure that the taxes collected are used efficiently, in such a manner as to reduce the need for citizens to fall back on private and expensive alternatives by improving public services and infrastructure. This has not been the case.

Poor Quality of Public Services

The improvement in government tax collection has brought little improvement in services like education, healthcare, and transport. Many middle-class families are forced to turn towards private schools and hospitals. This can be expensive, but often necessary, because of the poor quality of public institutions.

This forces them to spend more of their already limited income to acquire services that the government should be providing adequately. The failure of the government in effectively managing public services thus becomes a means of indirect interference because it burdens the citizens with added costs.

Moreover, this is further compounded by the problem of mismanagement and alleged corruption in spending by the government. Large infrastructure projects either not directly benefiting the middle class or plagued by inefficiencies and delays are a clear misallocation of funds that ought to be dedicated to improving the lives of ordinary people.

While the middle class pays its taxes, it does not see any visible benefits from its contribution and instead gets left thinking where all the money is really going, with subpar public infrastructure continuing to be at their expense.

The Myth of Minimum Interference

The Modi government’s idea of governance has been anything but minimally intrusive. Be it the GST touching every purchase to the income tax taking a significant bite out of salaries, the government is very much there in almost every financial transaction made by the middle class.

The tax system itself can also be overly bureaucratic in its makeup. Every middle-class citizen has to go through a web of tax regulations, filings, and compliance requirements, which very few understand and find overwhelming.

This in turn makes the risk of falling foul of non-compliance with the rules much greater and forces people and business to use up their time and resources on tax-planning and legal advice.This is hardly the “minimum interference” that is promised.

Everyday Economic Decisions

Government interference extends into the everyday economic decisions of the middle class. Be it a decision to purchase a new appliance, a healthcare plan, or planning for education, the impact of government taxes and policies is always a factor. 

Instead, empowering people to make their choices on their own, very often it is seen that this long reach of the government into the economy limits people’s choices and adds more costs.

The Aadhaar Debate

The most flagrant contrast within Modi’s promise of minimal interference is the Aadhaar system. What was supposed to be an instrument for streamlining public services under the plan has morphed into a tool for nearly unbounded surveillance. With almost any service mandatorily requiring Aadhaar linkage, such links have built a full-grained record of citizen activities for the government. Assurance about security and efficiency cannot hold water since the vulnerability and misuse of the system are causing growing intrusion into personal lives.

The Farm Laws Debate

The controversial farm laws of 2020 further testify to this rhetoric-reality divide. The very stakeholders the new laws were to cater to, the farmers, were not consulted.

That they were eventually withdrawn amid massive demonstrations demonstrates how the government’s gestures are divorced from its actions. Controversial for imposing corporate interests over the benefit of farmers, the laws also have the overall character of an administrative tendency to put out policies with minimal regard to stakeholder concerns.

Internet Censorship and IT Rules 2021

The IT Rules 2021 are just another example of expanding government control. These rules grant sweeping powers to the government to censor online content and penalise digital platforms that fail to comply. Quite against the promise of reducing interference, the amplitude of the rules empowers the state to regulate and monitor digital communication, raising concerns about freedom of expression and the right to privacy.

Taxation and Financial Scrutiny

The so-called backbone of the Indian economy, the middle class, is increasingly under the scanner regarding finances. Starting with the Goods and Services Tax (GST) on basic things and ending with complex tax filing procedures, the financial burden on middle-class families is increasing. It has resulted in more intrusive financial monitoring than relief in the tax burden, completely in contrast to the promise of less government interference in the lives of citizens.

The economic reality of rising inflation, unemployment, and stagnation contradicts the notion that the middle class “gives a lot to the nation” and expects “a certain quality of life.” Modi’s promise of improved governance delivery systems sounds like another empty slogan, especially when previous “Achhe Din” (Good Days) assurances have largely remained unfulfilled.

Promises of better governance and improved quality of life in the middle class are stagnant with rising inflation and lowered salary increases. It had been fluttering with big noses about the several economic initiatives taking place, but the gains had been found to reach the elite, thereby broadening the economic gap. The gap has, therefore, to its greatest extent, exposed the limitation of Modi’s claim against reduced government interference.

Modi’s statement about governance delivery systems looking for strength seems empty against increasing red tape and administrative headaches. Making services less complex is often a tangled procedure, which invariably means that the existing asperities on the shoulders of the people will multiply.

In Modi’s case, this governance model, focusing on the concentration of power and control within, belies the philosophy of minimal governance. In regard, part of it is a larger scheme of centralising authority, leading to a charge of normative imposition, as opposed to the actual empowerment of citizens.

This has been the case since 2014, and the new Modi administration shows it. In so doing, centralism subverts federalism and political authority, concentrating decision-making powers at the national level at the expense of regional voices and interests. This runs contrary to the principle of granting minimal interference to the government and sets up a more uniform and hierarchical political environment.

Efficiency and streamlining under the Modi government have increased bureaucratic control. But, when intended to result in a relatively simpler mode of governance, such measures could bring regulation or surveillance into citizens’ daily lives. An emphasis on administrative efficiency sometimes translates into more cumbersome intrusive procedures.

One of the characteristics of Modi’s style of governance is the following trends that are at odds with the idea of minimal government intervention, meaning that Modi’s government has taken several steps that augment the element of surveillance and control, like- the Aadhaar system; such measures, though they emphasized efficiency, are often associated with issues related to privacy and individual freedom.

Civil liberties have declined under Modi’s rule. Freedom of expression and the right to dissent have been severely curbed, with threats and censorship escalating on a large scale. The attempt to control media narratives and direct public discourse subverts the concept of minimal government interference in democratic practices.

These observations and criticisms indicate a vast difference between Narendra Modi’s claims and assertions and how he practises his rule.

Democratic Norms Getting Eroded and Concerns of Privacy

By now, the critics raise their alarm that India has turned into an electoral autocracy, and democratic ideals have been questioned unnecessarily. The extent to which the suppression of voices is being carried out and democratic institutions are weakening, we may see that there is some way of toppling an authoritarian regime.

The movement for centralization that has not only undermined federalism but also left democratic checks and balances by the wayside presents concerns in any set-up. Regional interests and voices are often marginalised in this kind of authority consolidation.

The Aadhaar system and all other e-governance initiatives raise gigantic questions about citizens’ privacy. The misuse of the citizens’ details and the government’s monitoring mechanisms over the activities of the citizens go against the minimal governance promise given by the government.

Economic Policies Favouring Corporates

Modi’s economic policies have been admonished to the point of arguing that they favour corporate interests over the welfare of the commoner. Large firms often capture the gains of economic reforms. Hence, economic inequality gets promoted further and expanded, thus putting those who are already poor into a deeper pit of poverty.

Another attack on academic freedom and an attempt to instil a state-endorsed mono-narrative is represented by the government’s curricular revisions and ideological manipulations regarding academic issues. Government interference in belief and knowledge that must remain independent is exactly what is represented by this, in general.

Viewpoint

The complex position of PM Modi’s rhetoric of minimal government interference in the lives of the middle class needs serious discussion. The distance between speech and practice has been much greater and thus demands serious reforms and accountability.

The governance model of Modi can bring about revolutionary development and progress, but its implications demand transparency, democratic values, and respect for individual freedoms. The middle class and all the citizens motivated to become a truly democratic society can only be achieved with real reforms.

The current approach of the Modi government towards taxation demands scrutiny, particularly in light of the considerable financial burden it places on the middle class. The imposition of taxes on even the most essential goods and services raises questions about the balance between revenue collection and the provision of public services.

The government appears keen on ensuring a steady flow of tax revenues but has not correspondingly enhanced the quality or accessibility of services that taxpayers rightfully expect. This situation calls for a reconsideration of the tax system, either through significant reductions or the elimination of taxes on basic necessities or a substantial improvement in the services provided, in order to justify the financial obligations imposed on citizens.

If the Modi government truly wishes to honour its commitment to minimal interference, it must start by re-evaluating its tax policies and spending priorities. Reducing the tax burden on essential goods, simplifying the tax code, and ensuring that public services are efficient and accessible would go a long way toward alleviating the pressure on the middle class.

The middle class, which is vital to the nation’s economic stability, deserves a government that respects their autonomy and reduces its interference in their lives. Until these changes are made, the promise of “minimum interference” will remain just that, a promise, unfulfilled and far removed from the everyday reality of India’s middle class.