New Delhi: Politics and economics make strange bedfellows! The love-hate-love relationship makes for a unique template. And India is a brilliant showcase of the twists and turns that make or mar the relationship between the two. With the Union Budget, the first in the third Modi government term, both the politics of business and business of politics, are presenting a stark contrast as the key economic policy document is getting ready for the big day.

Imagine trade unions of all hues, led by the right wing faction, and India’s top business chamber, the Confederation of Indian Industry, CII, have suddenly called a truce and are out to woo the middle class, a political orphan.

The Indian middle class, which bears the cross when it comes to filling government coffers paying tax diligently year on year, has found India Inc and trade unions, speak for it loud and clear. Both have made a formal pitch for reducing individual income tax levels.

Speaking in rare unison, CII and Bhartiya Mazdoor Sangh (BMS), sought significant cuts across various tax slabs for individuals. CII, in its petition to the FM, proposed “lowering the highest marginal personal income tax rate for earnings up to ₹20 lakh per annum, citing the significant disparity between the top individual tax rate of 42.74 per cent and the corporate tax rate of 25.17 per cent.”

It is not too often that an industry........

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