 "Budget ignored Oppn-ruled states? Outrageous allegations, says FM")
Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Wednesday termed “outrageous” the Opposition’s allegations that the Budget for FY25 “ignored” all states barring Andhra Pradesh and Bihar. She accused the West Bengal government of failing to implement the Centre’s schemes a day after Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee had claimed that the Budget had neglected her state.
The day began with the Opposition INDIA bloc MPs protesting inside the Parliament premises the alleged discrimination against Opposition-ruled states in the Union Budget, with Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha, Rahul Gandhi, saying the Budget is an “assault on the sanctity of India's federal structure”.
Opposition leaders Mallikarjun Kharge, Sonia Gandhi, Akhilesh Yadav, and others joined the protesting MPs who raised placards that stated: “We want India Budget not NDA Budget” and “NDA betrays India in Budget”.
The Congress has also decided that its chief ministers will boycott the NITI Aayog meeting scheduled for July 27, as would the CMs of some of its alliance partners, to protest the Budget “ignoring” Opposition-ruled states. Telangana Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy and his Karnataka counterpart Siddaramaiah have said they will not attend the meeting on July 27.
Later, when the two Houses began proceedings, the INDIA bloc MPs staged brief walkouts in both to protest the “discriminatory” Budget. Before the Opposition’s walkout in the Rajya Sabha, Chairman Jagdeep Dhankhar rejected notices under Rule 267 that called for the suspension of the listed agenda to take up the issue.
Leader of Opposition and Congress chief Kharge said the Budget provided funds and schemes for only two states — Bihar and Andhra Pradesh, and the INDIA bloc parties “condemn” this discrimination. As Dhankhar gave Sitharaman the floor to respond, Kharge led the Opposition bloc out of the House.
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Sitharaman said she did not name several states either in the Interim Budget presented in February nor in the full Budget tabled on Tuesday, but that does not mean that government schemes were not working for the states. She pointed to Maharashtra’s example, which she said was not named in either of the Budgets, and said that did not prevent the Union Cabinet from approving the Rs 76,000 crore Vadhavan port project in Dahanu in the state last month. “Did Maharashtra get ignored because I did not mention the name of Maharashtra? (An amount of) Rs 76,000 crore has been announced for that project,” she said.
Sitharaman said she can go on to cite several other states that have got major projects. “If the speech does not mention the name of a particular state, does it mean that the schemes of the Government of India, the programmes of the Government of India, the externally-aided assistance which we obtain from the World Bank, ADB, AIIB and institutions like that do not go to these states? They go as per a routine,” she said. The expenditure statement of the government gives out the item-wise allocation, the FM argued.
“This is a deliberate attempt of the Opposition parties, led by the Congress, to give an impression to people that ‘oh, nothing has been given to our states, it has only been given to two states’,” the FM said. “I would challenge the Congress party for all the budget speeches they have delivered, that in each of the budget speeches, have they named every state of the country?" she asked. “This is an outrageous allegation”, which is “not acceptable,” she said.
In the Lok Sabha, Congress’ Kumari Selja opened the discussion on the Budget while former finance minister P Chidambaram initiated the debate on the subject in the Rajya Sabha. He congratulated the FM for “picking good ideas” from the Congress manifesto, such as abolishing angel tax and proposing the employment-linked incentive (ELI) scheme.
Chidambaram asked whether the ELI scheme has been mooted because the existing production-linked incentive (PLI) schemes have failed to generate employment. He listed the incidents across the country where thousands have appeared for job interviews for a handful of jobs and yet the Reserve Bank of India has said that there is no jobs crisis in India. “Why didn't anyone from the minister or any officer stand up and say we reject the statement? The RBI is supposed to be cautious, conservative, and neutral, but you are cautious, you are conservative, and you are not neutral at all,” Chidambaram said.
The Congress leader criticised the FM for having “dismissed the subject” of inflation “in just 10 words” in her Budget speech. He said “inflation is much higher” in India’s remote areas than data collected mostly from towns and villages that are along national and state highways and district roads. He questioned the statement by the Chief Economic Advisor in the Economic Survey that India's inflation continues to be low, stable and moving towards the 4 per cent target.
“It has been moving for the past four years. When will it arrive at the 4 per cent target?” the Congress leader asked.
He further said: “I think what the Chief Economic Advisor said in the Economic Survey is the injury, and the honourable finance minister dismissing the subject in ten words is adding insult to injury.”
He argued that if inflation is low, stable and moving towards the 4 per cent target, why has the RBI not revised downward the bank rate fixed in June 2023? “Bank rate is a good measure of where inflation is moving. If inflation is moving towards the 4 per cent target, why is the RBI keeping the bank rate at 6.5 per cent for the last 13 months? Why is the MPC, the Monetary Policy Committee, not willing to revise it downwards?” Chidambaram said.
He spoke of the growing inequality, stagnant wages, and attacked the government for destroying federalism by picking and choosing among states for grant of relief.
“I don’t grudge at all that you are giving relief to Andhra Pradesh, or Bihar, but what about the other states? We are a federal country. This is the death knell of federalism if you pick and choose among states. You are the Union of India, you are the Union government, you are the government of all the states. You cannot pick and choose one state and deny relief to another state,” Chidambaram asserted.