New Delhi: Leader of the Opposition Mallikarjun Kharge and Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman exchanged words Wednesday over the alleged discrimination in the Union Budget in the Rajya Sabha, where the INDIA bloc MPs briefly walked out of the House.
Kharge slammed the Modi government, saying that it was a ‘kursi bachao’ (saving one’s chair) budget in which two states of Andhra Pradesh and Bihar got everything at the cost of others.
“Only two states have ‘Pakora’ and ‘Jalebi’ in their plates; rest got nothing,” he remarked.
“This budget is just to satisfy their allies… The rest of the states are not even named in the Budget. From Maharashtra to Karnataka, the plates are empty,” he said. “I was expecting Karnataka to get more as the finance minister represents the state. But from Karnataka to Tamil Nadu, Maharashtra to Haryana, no state got anything.”
The finance minister is a Rajya Sabha MP representing Karnataka since 2016.
Kharge kept up his attack on the government, saying those states where the people voted against Modi were ignored.
“Those who are with you today, tomorrow they will be with others. The government has not given to those states where the people rejected the BJP,” he said, referring to states like UP and Maharashtra where the ruling party saw a major drop in seats.
On Tuesday, the Modi government announced hefty financial packages for Andhra Pradesh and Bihar in the Union Budget. An allocation of Rs 15,000 crore was earmarked for Andhra Pradesh’s development in the current financial year, with assurances of more funds in subsequent years. Similarly, the Modi government gave Rs 58,000-cr-plus infra bonanza to Bihar.
Countering Kharge’s charges, Sitharaman denied that any state was ignored in the Budget and asserted that the Opposition was deliberately attempting to mislead citizens.
“In every Budget, one doesn’t get an opportunity to name every state of this country” she said. “For example, the Cabinet in June took a decision to set up a port on Vadhavan in Maharashtra. More than Rs 76,000 crore have been allocated for that. Maharashtra’s name wasn’t mentioned in the Vote on Account Budget in February, nor was it taken yesterday. Does it mean that Maharashtra got ignored?”
The Congress which has presented so many Budgets should understand this, she said. ”How many times has the Congress named every state in the Budget?”
“The expenditure account clearly item-wise mentions all allocation. This is a deliberate attempt by the Congress to malign the government,” she said. “This is an outrageous allegation.”
The finance minister attacked the Trinamool Congress (TMC) when MP Saket Gokhale rose to protest the ‘discrimination’ against West Bengal.
“You have the audacity to ask me now?” Sitharaman said. Several schemes brought out by the Centre haven’t been implemented by the Bengal government in the last 10 years, she said.
Earlier, the INDIA bloc MPs walked out as soon as the finance minister rose to speak in the House.
Seeing this, Rajya Sabha Chairman Jagdeep Dhankhar asked the Opposition to stop using Parliament for its political goal.
Dhankhar said it was a very disturbing trend that the Opposition walked out from the House without listening to the finance minister. “Parliament protest has been weaponised to suit political agenda. This is wrong.”
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Protest at Parliament premises
Kharge, Congress Parliamentary Party chief Sonia Gandhi and Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi along with INDIA bloc MPs staged a protest in Parliament premises on Wednesday over the alleged discrimination against opposition-ruled states in the Union Budget.
During the protest, Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh yadav said the double engine government has nothing to offer for Uttar Pradesh .
“We all were demanding that farmers should get MSP, but the support price is given to the alliance partners who are saving the government, rather than the farmers…The government could not take any concrete steps regarding inflation,” he said.
“Uttar Pradesh did not get anything. UP should have got a double benefit from the double engine government. I think the people of Lucknow have angered the people of Delhi. Its result is visible in the budget.”
Government floor managers have swung in action to restrict any possible damage in poll-bound states like Maharashtra, Haryana and Jharkhand.
“Our concern is like the Constitution-change narrative, the Opposition is trying to take advantage of a few provisions of the tax regime which can annoy the middle class… It’s our duty to minimise the setback by making every effort to publicise the good part of theKharge budget,” a government floor manager told ThePrint.
(Edited by Tony Rai)
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