Budget has nothing for poor, farmers, middle class: Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury

Leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury on Thursday said that there is nothing in the Union Budget for the poor, farmers and middle class.

Chowdhury said, "Budget documents are perceived to be a roadmap for the future but here is what I have found there may be a map but there is no road in this Budget. The Budget document is nothing but a sheer rigmarole and rumbling stories much to the confusion of common people."

"The budget which has come on the backdrop of retail inflation over 6 per cent has nothing on controlling price rise. Unemployment and inflation have crossed record highs. We can summarise the Budget as a zilch," he added.

Citing the National Survey Report of September 2021, he pointed out that the average income of farmers is mere Rs 27/day and the average debt of a farmer is Rs 74,000.

"National Survey Report of Sept 2021 pointed out that average income of farmers is mere Rs 27/day and average debt of a farmer is Rs 74,000. The double whammy is that the per hectare cost of farming increased by Rs 25,000/hectare/year. Do you have any answers? In seven years, Modi Government has fleeced the farmers of an additional Rs 17,50,000 crore," he said.

He further said Budget is a cruel joke for poor, working and salaried class, middle class, farmers, migrant workers of the country.

Quoting the government's data, the Congress leader said that more than 25,000 Indians died by suicide due to bankruptcy or indebtedness between 2018-2020.

"According to the data, suicides among the unemployed have been increasing and touched a high 3,548 in 2020. The growing stress due to unemployment is in line with the persistently high levels of unemployment -acknowledged even by the Government's own annual surveys known as the Periodic Labour Force Survey," he said.

Defending Congress leader Rahul Gandhi's remark of 'zero budget', he said, "Our leader Rahul Gandhi depicted it as a 'zero budget' because there was nothing for the middle class, salaried class, farmers and poor. It has no blueprint for creating jobs.

"But Nirmala Sitharaman termed his remark as UP type, I fail to understand what is UP type. I know Sitharaman, you know better what is UP type" he said.

"Our leader is saying, again and again, that country needs more jobs and the people of the country need convenience. Our leader talked about two India, one India belongs to haves and the other to have nots," he added.

In a reference to BJP member Tejasvi Surya's speech in the House in which he had rejected the criticism about unemployment and said only Congress Prince is unemployed, Chowdhury said without naming that he was a digital boy from the RSS factory and added that empty vessels make noise.

He further slammed Prime Minister Narendra Modi for insulting former Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru in Parliament is diminishing the Parliamentary values.