Terming the Union Budget an “exercise in rhetoric” done with the general elections in mind, the Opposition parties alleged that the Government has made promises which were not for it to make. While CPI(M) said it was a testimony to the BJP’s “fear and desperation” about what that verdict of the people might be, BSP president Mayawati termed the Budget a ‘jumlebazi’, that did not address the ground realties.
Mayawati, who has tied up with her once arch rival Samajwadi Party to take on BJP in Uttar Pradesh in the Lok Sabha polls, claimed that economic disparities had grown during the last five years with only a handful of capitalists benefiting, instead of farmers and the poor. “This is wrong and against the interest of the country,” she said in a statement.
“The last Budget of the BJP Government before the elections is far from the ground reality and the bitter truth, and is mostly jumlebazi,’ the Bahujan Samaj Party chief said. “Jumlebazi cannot change the destiny of the country and end longstanding problems like poverty, unemployment and inflation,” she said.
Referring to the coming Lok Sabha elections, the BSP president urged people to evaluate the “wrong policies and the arrogance” of the BJP Government. She asked them not fall prey to its efforts to “divert attention from its failures by inciting religious sentiments”.
Akhilesh Yadav, whose Samajwadi Party is in alliance with the BSP in Uttar Pradesh for the Lok Sabha polls, also accused the Government of trying to mislead people. “The BJP Government is only worried about votes and not the people. In its regime, it broke the backbone of the people with demonetisation and the Goods and Services Tax. Now in the year, when people are going to say goodbye to the BJP, it has once again resorted to ‘jumlebazi’ to befool people,” Yadav said.
Left parties too said Modi government has now become famous for suppressing and manipulating data and offering jumlas to the people. “The acting Finance Minister made tall claims during his speech about the record of the Modi Government and promises of a rosy future for all Indians — which was a cruel joke played on the suffering people of the country,” the CPI(M) said.
Communist Party of India (CPI), in a separate statement, described the Budget an “eyewash” as many schemes declared to help farmers and workers in the unorganised sector do not have sufficient budgetary provision.
In a series of tweets, CPI(M) General Secretary Sitaram Yechury alleged that a farmer’s family of five being given Rs3 per day as some largesse makes it evident how “disconnected” the government is from the “rural crisis of its making”.
On the other hand Telangana Rashtra Samiti claimed the cash dole for farmers announced in the union budget was an “imitation” of the ‘Rythu Bandhu’ scheme in the state with slight modifications. At the same time, the party said politics had taken precedence over economics in the budget in general and claimed that it might not swing votes in favour of the BJP -NDA in Lok Sabha elections. Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal too termed the Budget the “final jumla” of the Narendra Modi Government.