Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman and Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge
The budget was presented in the Lok Sabha yesterday, today the opposition started cornering the government over the budget. Leader of Opposition in Rajya Sabha Mallikarjun Kharge on Wednesday condemned the Union Budget 2024-25. He said that this budget is allegedly discriminatory towards the states. Kharge said that in the Union Budget presented by Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, the ‘plates’ of all the states were left empty except two states – Bihar and Andhra Pradesh.
‘The budget is to save the chair’
Naming Tamil Nadu, Maharashtra, Punjab, Haryana, Rajasthan, Chhattisgarh and his home state Karnataka, Kharge said, “No state got anything.” Also alleged that this budget is only to “please some people” and save the chair. Taking a dig at Sitharaman in the House, the Congress president said, “I expected that we (Karnataka) would get the most. But we got nothing.”
‘Mataji is an expert in speaking’
As soon as Rajya Sabha Chairman Jagdeep Dhankhar asked the Leader of Opposition to respond to Sitharaman, Kharge quipped, “I will speak. I know that Mataji is an expert in speaking. Let me finish my point. I know that Mataji is an expert in speaking.” Before leaving the Rajya Sabha, the senior Congress leader said, “All this has happened to save the chair, we will condemn it and oppose it. All the Indian coalition parties will oppose it, if there is no balance then how will there be development?”
Finance Minister replied
Denying allegations of discrimination, the finance minister said it was not possible to name every state in the budget speech. “I take the example of Maharashtra for instance, between the vote on account and yesterday’s budget, the cabinet has taken a very important decision to set up a very big port in Wadhawan,” Sitharaman said, referring to the proposed deep sea port in Palghar district.
called the allegations ‘outrageous’
The finance minister sarcastically asked Kharge, “Was Maharashtra ignored because it was not named in the report? Rs 76,000 crore has been announced for that project.” Terming the opposition’s allegations as “outrageous”, Sitharaman accused the Congress party of deliberately misleading the public. “I am saying it with responsibility that it is a ‘deliberate attempt’ by the opposition parties led by the Congress to create a false impression among the people that their states were not given funds or schemes,” Sitharaman said.
Opposition staged a protest
India Bloc MPs, including Congress Parliamentary Party chief Sonia Gandhi and Leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi, on Wednesday protested in the Parliament premises over alleged discrimination against opposition-ruled states in the Union Budget. Apart from Kharge, Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi, several MPs from Congress, TMC, Samajwadi Party, DMK and Left parties joined the protest held on the steps of the Makar Dwar of Parliament.
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