Terming the Union Budget as “directionless”, the Congress on Monday said it was a case of “wrong diagnosis and prescription”, and Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman could have been “brave” by extending help to the poor, but chose to be “timid”. Asserting that the Union Budget was a “let down like never before”, the grand old party claimed that it will unravel soon, and described the imposition of cess on petrol and diesel in the budget as “vengeful act” against the thousands of farmers who took out the tractor rally.
While former Congress chief Rahul Gandhi hit alleged that the Narendra Modi government plans to handover India’s assets to crony capitalists, party colleague former finance minister P Chidambaram said the FM “deceived” those who were listening to her speech, especially the MPs, had no clue that she has imposed cesses on a large number of products including petroleum and diesel. “Forget putting cash in the hands of people, Modi government plans to handover India’s assets to his crony capitalist friends,” Rahul said after the presentation of the Union Budget.
Chidambaram also took a jibe on Sitharaman saying that the FM used the same Tamil Tirukkural couplet used by him in one of his budget speech in UPA tenure. He also pointed that Sitharaman made a reference to the prime minister 14 times and to the farmers 11 times.
Reading out a party statement at a AICC press conference, Chidambaram said Sitharaman did not mention defence at all, “as if the Chinese had vacated occupied Indian territory”. The opposition party said it was a case of “wrong diagnosis and prescription”, and that Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman could have been “brave” by extending help to the poor, but chose to be “timid”.
“It was a vengeful act against the thousands of farmers who took out the longest tractor rally in history. It was also a cruel blow to federalism because the states do not get a share of the revenue from cesses,” the former finance minister said while addressing a Press conference. He said this was a “cruel blow” to the average citizen, including farmers.
“She deceived the people of India, especially the poor, the working class, the migrants, the farmers, the industrial units that had been closed down permanently, and those who had lost their jobs, both regular and informal, and are still looking for jobs,” he alleged.
Chidambaram did not mention that the defence expenditure in 2021-22 will not see any significant rise. “The FM had promised a budget ‘like never before’. Her mandate was to present an annual statement of revenue and expenditure for 2021-22. What she did, however, was to estimate expenditure over 2 years or 3 years or 4 years or, in one case, over 5 years,” he said.
Senior Congress leader and Deputy leader of Opposition in Rajya Sabha Anand Sharma tweeted, “the FM could have been brave but chose to be timid. The nation needed a bold budget and more direct transfers to the weaker sections to revive demand, restart job creation.”
He added ‘One Nation, One Ration Card’ and increased spending on public health were two bright spots in an otherwise “directionless” budget which will be forgotten in a few weeks.