Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge said that accountability and vision were “missing” from the interim Budget that was presented by Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Thursday.
He said that the claim by the Finance Minister that the income of the common people has increased is a “lie”, adding that the MGNREGA didn’t find a mention in the Budget.
“The truth is that wages in rural India have decreased in the last 5 years. The FM did not even mention MGNREGA in the entire budget speech. Because during the time of UPA, work was available for 100 days, now it is reduced to only 48 days in a year,” he said.
Calling the Narendra Modi-led government “apathetic”, Kharge said that it has reduced the spending of the Ministry of Women and Child Development as compared to the total budget.
“Why has Female Labour Force Participation, which was 30% in 2005, fallen to 24% now? Why did the Average GDP Growth rate of the country, which was 8% according to the New Series during Congress-UPA, declined to just 5.6% under Modi Govt?,” he asked.
He said that any Budget has two aspects, which are to provide a status report on the previous years, and the other is to provide a vision for the next year. The Congress president said that both of these are “missing” from the Interim Budget.
He also claimed that promises of “two crore jobs annually, Doubling Farmers’ Income, Pucca houses for all by 2022, 100 SMART cities” have not been fulfilled till date by the Modi government.
‘Not for common people’: TMC
The Trinamool Congress (TMC) said that the interim budget has “no direction and no substance” and not meant for the common people.
West Bengal MoS Chandrima Bhattacharya said that the middle class depends on the rate of tax, and there has been no change in tax slabs.
Communist Party of India (Marxist) leader Sitaram Yechury said that the interim budget is a “clear signal” of the “Modi developmental model”, which makes the rich, richer and impoverishes the poor.
Kerala Finance Minister K N Balagopal said that the nation is facing economic recession, but there were no measures in the Budget to address it.
Criticising the Congress-led UDF opposition for not discussing the shortcomings in the interim budget in the House, he said, “You (UDF) are always criticising things happening here, but not a word is said against them (Centre) here or in the Parliament.”
Uddhav Thackeray says Modi govt’s “last” Budget
Shiv Sena (UBT) chief Uddhav Thackeray took a swipe at the BJP-led Centre after the Union Budget was presented saying that Sitharaman has presented the Modi government’s “last” Budget.
“The Modi government presented its last budget. Want to thank the finance minister because she did it with a very heavy heart and presented the last budget,” Thackeray said, while addressing party workers in Raigad district.
Shiv Sena (UBT) MP Priyanka Chaturvedi, speaking to news agency PTI, said, “In this cold weather, they have poured cold water, and this is something which is happening consistently over the last 10 year.”
“Right from 2014, Modi’s promises to the country remain unfulfilled and that is the unfortunate part. When she (Nirmala Sitharaman) spoke about ‘GYAN’ – Gareeb, Yuva, Annadata and Nari Shakti – that is the unfortunate part. She did nothing for them,” she said.
Sitharaman on Thursday presented her sixth straight budget, ahead of the Lok Sabha election that is scheduled in April-May this year. She presented the pre-election Budget, which technically is a vote on account and popularly termed an interim Budget to meet the central government’s essential expenditure for the first four months of the new fiscal year that starts in April.