The budget announcement by Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman has already created a massive stir amongst Opposition parties, who termed it one-sided and politically motivated. The first budget of Modi government in its third term has been branded as “save Modi government” effort, since most of the benefits have been given to the NDA allies in Bihar and Andhra Pradesh while overlooking other states.
Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge was the most eloquent in attacking a “copycat” budget that provides superficial solutions to some of the most important problems facing the country, namely youth unemployment and low wages for people in rural areas. According to him, there were no serious programs for backward sections. He charged the Centre with “meager” allocations to agriculture, health, education, and public welfare. According to him, this is a budget that gives more priority to capitalist friends than common people; he criticised that no discussion has been kept in the budget regarding the Census and railway accountability, which is unparalleled in the history of democracy’s failure.
TMC called the budget an “Andhra-Bihar Budget.” West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee termed the Budget politically motivated and anti-poor. TMC national general secretary Abhishek Banerjee said he was not happy with the vindictive attitude of the budget, indicating that it was against those states which did not vote for the BJP.
SP’s Akhilesh Yadav criticized the budget for ignoring the interests of youth and farmers with particular reference to Uttar Pradesh. Yadav termed the announced internship programmes as inadequate, stating that the youth want permanent jobs and not something that was to be decided at a later date.
The Nationalist Congress Party, which is a part of the INDIA bloc, also said it had similar sentiments to share. As its spokesperson, Clyde Crasto said, “From the budget, it is clear that Maharashtra has been ignored.” Shiv Sena UBT leader Aaditya Thackeray expressed his dismay, saying though Maharashtra is the highest taxpayer in the country, nothing substantially beneficial to the state could be found in the budget.
BSP chief Mayawati termed the budget as going on with the same old pattern and having little hope for the poor, unemployed, farmers, women, laborers, and marginalized sections of society. She said that the government has not taken cognizance of the very important issues like poverty, unemployment, and inflation.
Delhi Finance Minister Atishi of the Aam Aadmi Party pointed out that despite this being one of the highest contributors of taxes in the country, not a single penny was going to be spent on Delhi. She dared the BJP to point out what good Delhi had got in the last 11 budgets brought by the Centre.
CPI(M) and Left Front-headed Kerala government described the budget as a political exercise and claimed that it was aimed at ‘bailing out’ the NDA coalition. The budget has been termed anti-people and anti-national with proposals that do not address the requirements of various states by Kerala Finance Minister K N Balagopal.
Their common opposition to the budget in fact represents the more pervasive dissatisfaction and concern about regional neglect and political bias. Criticism from such a wide array of quarters essentially points to the fact that this budget has been focused on gaining political mileage rather than anything else.
