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Drawing comparison with Congress over the freedom of expression issue, Shah said BJP did not "oppose" those who ran a campaign of "calumny and baseless charges" against Prime Minister Narendra Modi for years and highlighted suppression of media during the Emergency to attack the opposition party. (Reuters)
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Narendra Modi Budget 2016: Ram Pal Singh voted for Narendra Modi's promise of "better days" in India's 2014 general election, but he won't be backing the prime minister again even after last week's budget promised more aid to the countryside. (In an eyecatching announcement, the budget doubled spending on agriculture and farmers' welfare to $5.3 billion in support of his promise that their incomes would double by 2022.) (AP)
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The pace of economic reforms will continue and efforts will be made to get the GST Bill and bankruptcy legislations approved by Parliament expeditiously with view to pushing growth to over 8 per cent, the government today said. "If we have to cross 8 per cent growth next year… reforms are absolutely essential. GST, bankruptcy and insolvency laws are very important in accelerating growth to over 8 per cent," Economic Affairs Secretary Shaktikanta Das said. (Text: PTI; Image: AP)
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Narendra Modi Budget 2016: Farmers like Singh say low state purchase prices and a lack of compensation for crop losses are worsening their plight. Singh lost $4,500 over the past two years because of severe damage to his wheat and sugarcane crops in the Ghaziabad district of Uttar Pradesh, 30 miles (50 km) east of New Delhi. It has left him with debts of more $10,000, and despair has driven him to think of selling his land. "We have so much land but we still struggle to survive … there is only sadness in farming," said Singh, 60, who does not want his grandchildren to work in the fields. (AP)
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Narendra Modi Budget 2016: Last month, farmers went on the rampage in neighbouring Haryana state to protest a lack of economic opportunity. Thirty people died and saboteurs cut metropolitan Delhi's main water supply. "The budget may give you an illusion the government has tried to address the problems faced by farmers," said independent food and trade policy analyst Devinder Sharma. He called instead for a package of "immediate assistance" to stop a spate of suicides by farmers from spreading. (AP)
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Narendra Modi Budget 2016: Modi last year promised higher compensation for crop losses, but more than a dozen farmers interviewed said they had received no relief. Many have taken out more loans or sold cattle to tide themselves over. All but one said they will not support Modi's Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in next year's poll in Uttar Pradesh, India's most populous state, home to 200 million people. (AP)
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Modi said India is a "haven of macroeconomic stability and a beacon of hope, dynamism and opportunity" amid global problems and has dispelled the myth that democracy and rapid economic growth cannot go together. (AP)
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Narendra Modi Budget 2016: In addition, the main effort to expand irrigation is seen as piecemeal. And a new crop insurance scheme is expected to get off to a slow start. "The government does not have a firm plan to address the rural crisis. They will have to pay a big political price for this," said Satish Misra, a political analyst at the Observer Research Foundation in New Delhi. (AP)
