Rahul flags 'hollow' Budget promises; demands ignored, say regional parties

On Tuesday, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi led the Opposition in slamming the government for presenting a Budget full of “hollow promises”, adding the Centre sought to appease its Andhra Pradesh and Bihar allies to ensure the survival of its government at the Centre. Gandhi said it was a “kursi bachao" Budget ("save chair" Budget).
 

Congress leaders, such as P Chidambaram and others, pointed to its ‘Nyay Patra’, the party’s manifesto for the 2024 Lok Sabha polls, to point out that Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman “borrowed” at least three ideas from that document.
 

“She has virtually adopted the ideas underlying our proposals on employment-linked incentive (ELI) scheme, the apprenticeship scheme with an allowance to the apprentice, and on the abolition of the angel tax. I wish she had adopted many more ideas from the Congress’ manifesto,” Chidambaram said.
 

Regional parties complained that the Budget ignored the development needs of several states, especially Odisha, West Bengal, Uttar Pradesh, and Maharashtra. West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee described the Budget provisions as discriminatory to her state. Congress Members of Parliament (MPs) from Punjab and those from Maharashtra’s Opposition Maha Vikas Aghadi protested, accusing the government of ignoring and discriminating against their states in the Budget.

All the Biju Janata Dal MPs walked out of the Rajya Sabha when the Budget was tabled in the Upper House accusing the government of providing additional funds for Andhra and Bihar but not Odisha. “Probably this is the punishment meted out to Odisha for electing 20 out of the 21 BJP MPs from Odisha and the reward to BJP allies from Bihar and Andhra,” BJD leader Sasmit Patra said.
 

In a critique of the Budget, Chidambaram said the government’s response in meeting the challenge of unemployment is too little. “The claim that the schemes announced by the FM will benefit 2.9 million persons is highly exaggerated,” he said.

The former Union finance minister “deplored the casual attitude of the government” in tackling the challenge of inflation. He said the FM dismissed the issue of inflation in ten words in paragraph three of her speech. “The Economic Survey (ES) has stated that the deflator for manufacturing has been assumed as 1.7 per cent.  The deflator(s) assumed by the government have been severely criticised by several knowledgeable economists.  Unless the puzzle of the ‘deflator’ is resolved, it is not possible to unquestionably accept the claimed GDP growth rate of 8.2 per cent in 2023-24. Besides, the GDP growth rate is no answer to the huge challenge of inflation,” he said.
 

Chidambaram said the FM did not speak about the grave deficiencies in public health care. He said wages have stagnated in the last six years after adjusting for inflation and the minimum wage should be fixed at ~400 per day for every kind of employment. He said some relief had been given to the tax-paying citizen in the 0-20 per cent tax bracket, but the poorer sections of the people, especially wage labourers, had received no relief.
 

Congress’ Manish Tewari said the political message of the budget was the tail wagging the dog. Samajwadi Party president Akhilesh Yadav wondered whether the Budget had anything for UP.