Manas Dasgupta
NEW DELHI, July 24: The debate on the budget for the current fiscal witnessed heated exchanges between the ruling and opposition benches and sometimes with the chair in both the Lok Sabha and the Rajya Sabha on Wednesday with the entire opposition of the INDIA bloc parties walking out of the Upper House to protest against, what it called, “budget by the two, for the two.”
The opposition was peeved that the entire budget exercise was politically motivated and focused only on two states Andhra Pradesh and Bihar as the support of the ruling parties in these two states, the Telegu Desam Party (TDP) and the Janata Dal (United) were vital for the survival of the NDA government headed by Mr Narendra Modi. This brought sharp retort from the finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman who termed the opposition allegation “outrageous” and claimed that all the States never found a mention in any of the previous Budgets, including those presented by the Congress.
Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi, Congress MP Sonia Gandhi, Congress President and Leader of the Opposition Mallikarjun Kharge, party General Secretary K. C. Venugopal, Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav, TMC MP Dola Sen were seen participating in the protest.
After Chairman Jagdeep Dhankhar rejected notices under Rule 267 that called for the suspension of the listed agenda to take up the issue, Leader of Opposition and Congress president Mr Kharge said the union budget for the 2024-25 fiscal year provided funds and schemes for only two States, “All other States did not find any mention,” he said terming the Budget a “kursi-bachao” document.
In the Lok Sabha, the discussion on Budget witnessed a sharp exchange between Speaker Om Birla and Trinamool Congress MP Abhishek Banerjee, when the latter claimed that the House did not discuss the three farm laws that were later rolled back and the Chair stressed that it did.
Mr Banerjee, MP from West Bengal’s Diamond Harbour and the Number 2 in the Mamata Banerjee-led party, said in his speech that the Centre got the agricultural bills passed “without any consultation with farmers, farmer organisations or Opposition parties.”
The Speaker intervened: “Let’s set the record straight, this House discussed the issue for five-and-a-half hours.” When Mr Banerjee stressed that no discussion took place, Mr Birla said, firmly, “When the Speaker speaks, he speaks right. You correct yourself.” The Trinamool MP stuck to his guns, prompting the Speaker to say, “When I speak, I don’t speak wrong.”
Mr Kharge said the Congress and the other parties in the Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance (INDIA) “condemn” this discrimination. As Mr Dhankhar gave the Finance Minister floor to respond, Mr Kharge led the Opposition bloc out of the House, saying they were walking out in protest.
As the MPs belonging to the Opposition parties returned to the House, the Finance Minister said the Trinamool Congress (TMC) had raised questions on July 23 about nothing being given to West Bengal in the Budget, but the fact is that several schemes launched by the Modi government in the last 10 years have not been implemented in the State.
Her statement was met with vociferous opposition from the TMC members, who said the BJP-led Centre owes ₹1 lakh crore to West Bengal. Mr Kharge said barring the States ruled by the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) allies, several major States, including Tamil Nadu, Maharashtra, Punjab, Haryana, Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh, have received nothing in the Budget.
“I will not go into the argument of 267. In the Budget that was presented yesterday, nobody got anything. Sabke thali khali aur do ke thali mai pakoda aur jalebi. Yeh do States chor kar kuch nahi mila kuch. Neither Tamil Nadu, Kerala nor Karnataka got anything. Neither Maharashtra nor Punjab or Rajasthan and neither Chhattisgarh. Even Delhi did not receive anything nor did Odisha. I have not seen this kind of Budget until now.
“This Budget has been presented only to keep some people happy and it has all been done save their chairs, ‘Kursi bachane ke liye’ kiya gaya. We condemn this Budget and protest against it. Meri toh apeksha aaise thi ki sabse jayada budget se hamai (Karnataka) ko milega. But we got nothing. All the INDIA alliance parties will protest. From Kanyakumari to Kashmir, we will protest,” Mr Kharge said.
Ms Sitharaman lashed out at the opposition for terming the budget “discriminatory” and said it was an ‘outrageous allegation’ and a deliberate attempt by the Opposition parties led by the Congress to give the people the wrong impression that their States were not allocated funds or schemes.
The Finance Minister said she did not name many States either in the Interim Budget presented in February, ahead of the general election or in the full Budget tabled in Parliament on July 23, but that did not mean that government schemes were not working for the States.
She cited the example of Maharashtra, which was not named in either of the budgets, and said it did not prevent the Union Cabinet from approving the ₹76,000-crore Vadhavan port project in Dahanu in the State last month. “Did Maharashtra get ignored because I did not mention the name of Maharashtra? (An amount of) ₹76,000 crore has been announced for that project,” she said. Ms Sitharaman said she can cite several other States that have got major projects.
“If the speech does not mention the name of a particular State, does it mean that the schemes of the Government of India, the programmes of the Government of India, the externally-aided assistance, which we obtain from the World Bank, ADB, AIIB and institutions such as these do not go to these States? They go as per a routine,” she said.
In the Lok Sabha, Mr Banerjee targeted the Narendra Modi government over the Budget and drew a response from the treasury benches, especially BJP MPs from Bengal. The Trinamool general secretary said the Budget lacked “clarity of vision” and was aimed at satisfying BJP coalition partners rather than providing any relief to the country’s 140 crore people.
“This is a budget planned by two individuals to keep another two in good faith,” he said, adding that it was “planned by two, executed for two”. Mr Banerjee said the “anti-people” budget was crafted to “bribe two political parties and buy time before the government implodes.”
After Ms Sitharaman slammed the Trinamool’s criticism of the Budget that West Bengal was not implementing several central schemes given by the Modi government, Mr Banerjee threw a challenge, daring the Finance Minister to release a white paper on how much money the Centre has given to Bengal after BJP’s defeat in the 2021 state polls.
The Trinamool MP said the Centre has withheld MGNREGA funds and lakhs of houses sanctioned under the PM Awas Yojana in Bengal are waiting central funds. Mr Banerjee said that money that should have been used to build homes is “allocated to purchase aircraft worth ₹ 8000 crore and construct palatial buildings as part of Central Vista project worth ₹ 20,000 crore while poor people of this country still endure homelessness.”
