New Delhi: Criticism by the Opposition continued to pour in Thursday in the Parliament, two days after the Union Budget 2024-25 was presented, as MPs accused the Narendra Modi-led government of presenting a “discriminatory” budget, ignoring the interests of the middle class, farmers and rural poor.
Speaking in the Rajya Sabha during a general discussion on the budget, Aam Aadmi Party MP Raghav Chadha said, “The common man has had to pay such high taxes in the last 10 years, but what does the government give in return? What kind of world-class healthcare, transportation and education is the government providing? We, in India today, pay taxes like England to get services like Somalia.”
Referring to the issues of inflation, taxes and unemployment, Chadha claimed that the Bharatiya Janata Party-led government managed to displease everyone with the budget.
On the ruling party’s performance in the 2024 Lok Sabha polls, he remarked, “In 2019, BJP had 303 seats, but the people of this country imposed a GST of 18 percent on those seats, bringing them down to 240.”
Slamming the government for not giving concessions to the middle class and the rural sector, the AAP leader said, “There are only three reasons for the setback to BJP in the elections — economy, economy and economy.” He added that rural income growth is “at a decadal low”, farmers’ wages are not rising and food inflation is causing rural distress.
“We are experiencing inflation even in commodities that we were self-sufficient in and exporting,” he said.
Chadha suggested six measures that the government must take urgently to minimise the distress in rural economy — indexing minimum wages for inflation like in Belgium, reworking the agricultural pricing formula, legal guarantee of Minimum Support Price in accordance with the Swaminathan report, restoring indexation on long-term capital gains, comprehensively studying the GST structure and reducing it, and giving more to states.
Meanwhile, Congress MP Randeep Surjewala alleged that the government is fooling farmers and not buying crops at MSP.
He said in the Upper House, “The finance minister said that farmers were given 50 percent profit on cost. But, as per CACP (Commission for Agricultural Costs and Prices) report, MSP is not C2+50% for the Kharif crops. There is not a single crop for which 50 percent profit on cost has been given. The finance minister has openly lied in the Parliament about this. The Modi government declares MSP, but does not buy the crop at MSP.”
On the budget, Surjewala said, “The finance minister started her by mentioning farmers, poor and youth. But, within minutes, it became clear that this is a ‘kursi bachao, sahyogi dal patao, aur haar ka badla lete jao’ budget (a budget to save the government, appease allies and take revenge for defeat). This budget is anti-farm, anti-farming and anti-farmer.”
The Congress MP claimed, “Modi government only announces big schemes in the budget, but never spends the money.” He alleged that Rs 3 lakh crore meant for schemes for farmers were unspent by the government. He said, for instance, that the total outlay for the PM Kisan Yojana for the 2019-2024 period was Rs 4.03 lakh crore, but only Rs 2.35 lakh crore was spent., which meant that the government kept 48 percent of the budgeted money with itself.
He remarked, “Under the BJP and Modi-led government, MSP has become maximum suffering for farmers.”
Debashish Samantaray, Rajya Sabha MP from Biju Janata Dal, BJP’s former friend, attacked the government for ignoring the interest of Odisha in the budget.
He said, “Unparliamentary language was used against Patnaik and false rumours were spread about his health during the elections, but a time will come during the presidential election in 2027, when BJP will need BJD’s support.”
“People are unsure after this mandate. If they (Modi government) don’t mend their ways, they will be thrown out in the next election,” he added.
Rashtriya Janata Dal MP Sanjay Yadav slammed the Bihar package, announced in the budget Tuesday, saying, “The budget has not addressed the concerns regarding unemployment. The provision made to Bihar has been repackaged multiple times.”
(Edited by Mannat Chugh)
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