Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Saturday criticised Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman’s Budget speech, calling it “hollow” and one with no strategic idea or anything concrete, PTI reported.
“The main issue facing is unemployment,” Gandhi told reporters outside Parliament after the presentation of the budget. “I didn’t see any strategic idea that would help our youth get jobs. I saw tactical stuff but no central idea. It describes government well, lot of repetition, rambling – it is mindset of government, all talk, but nothing happening.”
The finance minister beat her own record of the longest Budget speech this year. She spoke for 2 hours and 41 minutes. She reiterated the government’s goal to achieve the ambitious target of $5 trillion economy by 2025 and presented a road map. Among the significant announcements by her include new income tax rates for individuals opting to forego exemptions. Sitharaman also proposed a 16-point action plan to boost agriculture and farmers welfare, referring to it as a part of the “aspirational India”, along with Rs 99,300 crore allocation for education.
Gandhi said the youth of the country know what was happening. “There are no jobs,” he added. “Nothing happened here to help you.”
Another Congress leader, Anand Sharma said the budget was insipid and had no stimulus for growth. “No clear road map for job creation,” he added, according to PTI.
Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Kamal Nath said the Budget was disappointing and a “labyrinth of data”. He added there was nothing for farmers, unemployed youth, the poor or women.
Aam Aadmi chief Arvind Kejriwal said Delhi had high expectations from the Budget, but step-motherly treatment was being meted out. “Delhi does not figure in BJP’s priorities,” he tweeted. “Why should people vote for it?”
West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee claimed that the Centre’s proposal to sell some of its shares in Life Insurance Corporation was a plan to “ambush” the legacy of public institutions. “I am shocked and appalled to see how the central government plans to ambush the heritage and legacy of public institutions,” Banerjee tweeted. “It’s the end of a sense of security. Is it also the end of an era?”
The chief minister’s party Trinamool Congress criticised the Budget over removal of tax exemptions and questioned such a move in a country where there is no social security.
“Tax cut ki goli mat do [don’t lie about tax cuts],” TMC spokesperson and Rajya Sabha MP Derek O’Brien tweeted. “Read the fine print on the so-called IT cuts. Government removes incentives to “save’’ in a nation where there is no social security. 70/100 tax exemptions withdrawn. Exemptions were given as incentive to save money in PPF, LIC, Health insurance etc.”
Senior Telangana Rashtra Samithi leader B Vinod Kumar said the Budget was “passive” and had no new announcements. “In the context of Telangana, there is no comment on all the representations which we had made to declare any project either on river Godavari or Krishna as a national project,” PTI quoted him as saying. “No new allocations for national highways, railways in Telangana.”
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