3 Sangh affiliates Nirmala Sitharaman can’t afford to ignore

3 Sangh affiliates Nirmala Sitharaman can’t afford to ignore

New Delhi: As February 1 nears when Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman will present her second Budget, she has gone through months of deliberations with industry experts, BJP’s economic cell which has held 11 meetings and of course with top bureaucrats at the North Block. But apart from them, another segment that will exert a huge influence on the budgetary allocation on certain sectors are the powerful RSS offshoots who implement the Sangh’s economic vision. Here’s a look at them whose suggestions Sitharaman or for that matter no BJP FM can afford to brazen out.

Right of centre, this is the main outfit that implements much of Sangh’s economic views and Mahajan is its face. With the country’s economy more tilted towards the “left”, he has objected to many of the BJP’s economic moves and forced the government to go back.

Even when Prime Minister Narendra Modi asserted that protectionism is no less disastrous than terrorism, Mahajan believes protectionism is not necessarily bad. Mahajan’s latest fight was against RCEP, a free trade agreement that eventually forced the opposition to come by his side. Observing an 11-day countrywide protest in October last year, the SJM vigorously lobbied against the move and the government eventually chose not to go ahead with the pact.

The SJM has also objected to China-based Huawei Technologies joining the 5G trial in India, citing ‘national security’.

This is a labour wing of the RSS which implements much of Sangh’s economic vision vis-a-vis Athe workers and has “nationalism” at its core. “Industrialise the nation, Nationalise the Labour, Labourise the Industry” is its motto. On January 8, when major trade unions gave a call for a nationwide protest against the Modi government’s economic and labor policies, the BMS chose to stay away from it. But it is not necessarily pro-BJP but extends its support on case to case. For instance, the same BMS was up in arms against the draft of the Social Security Code, 2019 brought out by the Modi government. In its submission to Labour Ministry at that time, it called the proposed code “totally disappointing for the workers”.

This Sangh affiliate meant for medium, small and micro industries (MSME)’s clout on government’s economic decision-making can be sensed from the fact that Union Commerce & Railways Minister Piyush Goyal to Minister of State for Heavy Industry Arjun Ram Meghwal were in attendance in one of its conclaves last year in August. The ministers flew down to Nagpur for that conclave, attended by 2,200 industrialists. As recent as January, a meeting on Aligarh Defence Industrial Corridor in which this outfit had little or no role to play saw it also invited. The LUB raised the issue of small businesses being ignored in that megaproject following which the UP government stated both MSMEs will be given due importance as well as locals for that project — twin demands of the RSS affiliate. (IANS)

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