"Farewell Budget": Opposition Reacts To Nirmala Sitharaman's Interim Budget

Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman promised economic reforms to drive growth in a speech on the government's budget on Thursday, the last before a national election due by May. The Opposition, however, has termed it the "vidai (farewell) budget".

"If any budget is not for development and any development is not for the people then it is useless. The BJP government has created a shameful record by completing a decade of anti-people budgets, which will never be broken again because now is the time for a positive government to come. This is BJP's 'farewell budget'," Akhilesh Yadav posted on X in Hindi.

कोई भी बजट अगर विकास के लिए नहीं है और कोई भी विकास अगर जनता के लिए नहीं है तो वो व्यर्थ है।

भाजपा सरकार ने जनविरोधी बजटों का एक दशक पूरा करके एक शर्मनाक रिकार्ड बनाया है, जो फिर कभी नहीं टूटेगा क्योंकि अब सकारात्मक सरकार आने का समय हो गया है।

ये भाजपा का ‘विदाई बजट' है।

— Akhilesh Yadav (@yadavakhilesh) February 1, 2024

The Finance Minister underlined that the government is working to make India a developed country by 2047, adding that it works on the principle of 'reform, perform, and transform'.

The interim budget is to meet the central government's essential expenditure for the first four months of the new fiscal year that starts in April.

"The Modi government presented its last budget. Want to thank the finance minister because she did it with a very heavy heart and presented the last budget," said Uddhav Thackeray addressing party workers in Raigad district.

Priyanka Chaturvedi, of Uddhav Thackeray faction, taking her cue from the cold weather said the Finance Minister poured "cold water" on people's expectations.

"All I can say is that in this cold weather, what the Finance Minister has done, she has poured cold water over the expectations of the people of this country," said Priyanka Chaturvedi, leader Shiv Sena (UBT).

Prime Minister Narendra Modi, in a televised address following the budget, said it will empower the four pillars of developed India, namely the young, poor, women and farmers.

"This is a budget of creating India's future," the Prime Minister said, adding that it is a reflection of the young aspirations of a young India.

Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury, Congress' leader in the Lok Sabha, said the budget only aims to woo people ahead of polls. 

"Is this a budget to provide employment to the unemployed... This budget is nothing but to woo people in this year's Lok Sabha elections," said Mr Chowdhury. 

"The Finance Minister took a long time to hail praises but delivery was zero. They are going to present a white paper on the previous government... Nothing much has happened in the last 10 years. The people of the country are already disappointed. Moreover, you realise that performance incentives are given to the bridge companies, and not going to the deserving ones. People are rejected with this budget," said DMK MP Dayanidhi Maran.

"Mere administrative exercise to ensure that the government of India has the requisite funds to carry on its normal business until the new parliament is constituted and a new government is formed. And that's what they have done, except for making their obligatory self-congratulatory, self-praise phrases, nothing else is there and nothing should have been there, and rightly so. Nothing is there," said Congress MP Karti Chidambaram.
 

from NDTV News- Topstories https://ift.tt/LlDtibs