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Informist, Wednesday, Jul 24, 2024

NEW DELHI – Accusing the government of neglecting opposition-ruled states in the Union Budget 2024-25 (Apr-Mar), opposition parties today created uproar in the Lok Sabha and the Rajya Sabha and staged a symbolic walkout from both Houses of Parliament. The opposition parties said that the Budget presented by Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Tuesday made allocations for only two states, both ruled by allies of the Bharatiya Janata Party, in an attempt to save the government at the Centre.

However, Sitharaman defended her stance in the Rajya Sabha, saying it was not possible to take the names of all states in the Budget speech. Both Houses today also started discussion on the Union Budget.

In the Rajya Sabha, Congress leader and former finance minister P. Chidambaram slammed the government for presenting what he claimed was a discriminatory Budget, and put forth several demands of the Congress party. He demanded that the daily national minimum wage for all jobs be increased to 400 rupees per day, and also sought a law for legal guarantee of minimum support price. The senior Congress leader asked the government to scrap the national eligibility-cum-entrance test for medical courses. He said that several states didn't want the entrance test and asked the government to exempt such states. He also demanded withdrawal of the Agnipath scheme.

Chidambaram asked the government to reveal the deflator being used to estimate inflation-adjusted GDP growth. He said that the government had adopted a deflator that was severely criticised. "If you take a deflator which is less than 1.7%, then you will get 9.2% GDP growth, if you take 0.5%, you will even cross 10%," he said. A GDP deflator measures inflation in prices of goods and services produced in a country, and largely takes into account WPI inflation. He also accused the government of not taking inflation seriously.

In the Lok Sabha, Trinamool Congress member Abhishek Banerjee said that the Budget was made to lure two parties (Janata Dal (United) and Telugu Desam Party) and buy time before the government implodes, and alleged that the Budget lacked any vision.

TDP member Sribharat Mathukumili, meanwhile, lauded the Budget and thanked the government for announcing 150 bln rupees to Andhra Pradesh for the Amaravati project.  End

Reported by Kuldeep Singh

Edited by Avishek Dutta

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