New Delhi. As soon as Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman stood up from her seat in Rajya Sabha today to begin the discussion on the budget, the entire opposition walked out of the House, but even here the opposition did not show unity. In fact, after a short while, Rajya Sabha MPs of Mamta Banerjee’s party Trinamool Congress and Uddhav Thackeray-led Shiv Sena (UBT) returned to the House. In this way, there was no consensus among the opposition in the way of protesting on this issue. Earlier, Leader of Opposition in Rajya Sabha Mallikarjun Kharge addressed Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman as Mataji. On this, Rajya Sabha Chairman Jagdeep Dhankhar immediately reacted and said, she is not Mataji, she is of the same age as your daughter.
#WATCH , On Opposition’s protest against ‘discriminatory’ Budget, FM Nirmala Sitharaman in Rajya Sabha says,”…In every Budget, you don’t get an opportunity to name every state of this country…The Cabinet had taken a decision to set up a port on Vadavan. But Maharashtra’s name… pic.twitter.com/KSEATuMNpf
— ANI (@ANI) July 24, 2024
The opposition has termed the general budget as discriminatory and has alleged that many states have been ignored in it. Responding to the allegations of the opposition, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said that this is a deliberate attempt by the opposition led by the Congress to make people feel that nothing has been given to our states. This is an insulting allegation. While speaking in the House, the Finance Minister said that the Congress party was in power in the country for many years and it knows very well that in every budget, you do not get a chance to name every state of this country.
Giving an example, the Finance Minister said that the Modi Cabinet has decided to build a very big port in Vadavan, Maharashtra, but if Maharashtra’s name was not mentioned in yesterday’s budget, does it mean that Maharashtra feels neglected? Sitharaman said that if a particular state is not mentioned or named in the speech, will it be taken to mean that those states will not get the benefits of the central government’s schemes. These are completely false allegations that spread confusion.