NEW DELHI: Leader of opposition and Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge accused the BJP-led government on Wednesday of prioritizing only two states, Bihar and Andhra Pradesh, in the Union Budget for 2024-25 while disregarding the rest of the nation.
Kharge referred to the budget as a “kursi-bachao” document, spearheading the criticism by Congress and other INDIA bloc parties against this alleged bias.
“No state got anything in the budget of Modi government. The states where people have rejected BJP, those states got nothing from this budget! Everyone’s plate is empty, and in the plate of two states there are Pakora and Jalebi. This budget has been brought only to save his chair”, Kharge said in Rajya Sabha.
As Rajya Sabha chairman Jagdeep Dhankhar urged Kharge to allow finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman to respond, Kharge remarked, “Main bol deta hun. Mataji bolne mein toh expert hain mujhe maloom hai. (Let me finish. Mataji is expert in speaking, I am aware of that.)”
He further argued that there can be no development without balance between states. As finance minister Nirmala Sitharama was given the floor to respond, Kharge led the opposition bloc out of the House in protest.
Sitharaman pointed out that she had not named many states in either the interim budget presented in February or the full budget tabled on Tuesday. She highlighted that this does not imply that government schemes are not benefiting those states and cited the example of Maharashtra, which was not mentioned in either budget but still received approval for the Rs 76,000-crore Vadhavan port project in Dahanu last month.
“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 finance minister challenged the Congress party to review their own budget speeches and determine if they had named every state in the country. She called the opposition’s allegation “outrageous” and “not acceptable.”
As the opposition MPs returned to the House, Sitharaman addressed the Trinamool Congress’s (TMC) concerns about West Bengal not receiving any allocations in the budget. She countered by stating that several schemes launched by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in the last 10 years have not been implemented in the state.
Kharge referred to the budget as a “kursi-bachao” document, spearheading the criticism by Congress and other INDIA bloc parties against this alleged bias.
“No state got anything in the budget of Modi government. The states where people have rejected BJP, those states got nothing from this budget! Everyone’s plate is empty, and in the plate of two states there are Pakora and Jalebi. This budget has been brought only to save his chair”, Kharge said in Rajya Sabha.
As Rajya Sabha chairman Jagdeep Dhankhar urged Kharge to allow finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman to respond, Kharge remarked, “Main bol deta hun. Mataji bolne mein toh expert hain mujhe maloom hai. (Let me finish. Mataji is expert in speaking, I am aware of that.)”
He further argued that there can be no development without balance between states. As finance minister Nirmala Sitharama was given the floor to respond, Kharge led the opposition bloc out of the House in protest.
Sitharaman pointed out that she had not named many states in either the interim budget presented in February or the full budget tabled on Tuesday. She highlighted that this does not imply that government schemes are not benefiting those states and cited the example of Maharashtra, which was not mentioned in either budget but still received approval for the Rs 76,000-crore Vadhavan port project in Dahanu last month.
“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 finance minister challenged the Congress party to review their own budget speeches and determine if they had named every state in the country. She called the opposition’s allegation “outrageous” and “not acceptable.”
As the opposition MPs returned to the House, Sitharaman addressed the Trinamool Congress’s (TMC) concerns about West Bengal not receiving any allocations in the budget. She countered by stating that several schemes launched by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in the last 10 years have not been implemented in the state.