NEW DELHI: A day after she presented the Union Budget 2024-2025, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Wednesday sparred with Opposition leaders who alleged that the financial document ignored all states except for Bihar and Andhra Pradesh — a charge she termed as “outrageous”.
As the Rajya Sabha proceedings began for the day, Leader of Opposition Mallikarjun Kharge said the INDIA bloc parties “condemned” the Budget which ignored other states, apart from Bihar and Andhra Pradesh, which are ruled by the BJP’s allies, the JD(DU) and the TDP.
Protesting against it, the Opposition staged a walkout but returned to the House within minutes as Sitharaman was responding to Kharge’s charge.
“If the speech does not mention a particular state, does it mean the schemes of the Government of India, the programmes of the Government of India, the externally-aided assistance that we obtain from the World Bank, ADB, the AIIB and so on, don’t go to these states? They go as per a routine,” she said.
The Union finance minister added that though she did not mention Maharashtra, the Cabinet had approved Rs 76,000 crore for a port project in Vadhavan. She also asked the Congress party if all states had been mentioned in the speeches during their time in government. “This is a deliberate attempt of the Opposition parties led by the Congress to give an impression to the people ‘nothing has been given to our states, it’s only been given to two states’…This is an outrageous allegation,” she said.
Responding to Trinamool Congress MPs who said West Bengal had been left out of the budget, Nirmala Sitharaman said Central schemes of the Narendra Modi government had not been implemented in the state in the past 10 years.
When the Opposition walked out, Raja Sabha Chairman Jagdeep Dhankhar said he had given the floor to the Leader of Opposition, but found that the opportunity had been used “as a ploy and a strategy.”
“Democracy will be seriously threatened if disruption and disturbance are weaponised as a political strategy as has been done now…I cannot persuade myself but to take serious exception to this unwholesome practice adopted by a senior member, the Leader of the Opposition. I will call upon leaders of the parties to soul-search,” Dhankhar said.
In the Lok Sabha, members of the INDIA bloc shouted slogans of alleged injustice to Opposition-ruled states during Question Hour. Congress leaders, including Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi, members from the TMC, the DMK, the Samajwadi Party, the RJD, the AAP, Shiv Sena (UBT) and the Left, stood with placards that read “INDIA rejects NDA budget”, “NDA betrays INDIA in Budget” and “Treat All States Equally” among others outside Parliament.
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