Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Wednesday lashed out at the opposition’s claim that the budget was ‘discriminatory’ and said that 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 reacted after Leader of Opposition Mallikarjun Kharge made claims that the budget was discriminatory towards the states of the country.
Speaking in the Rajya Sabha, the finance minister said, “It is unfortunate that the opposition, particularly a senior leader, Mallikarjun Kharge, stood up to say what he heard of the budget yesterday. Now that the leader of the opposition raised issues on the budget, which was presented and tabled in the house yesterday.”
“Just to the point he raised, I have not named many states and only spoken of two states. There are a few points I would like to make here as to what happens in a speech. The Congress party has been in power for a very long time in this country and they have presented so many budgets that they would know clearly that in every budget, you don’t get an opportunity to name every state of this country,” she said.
“I’ll take this example: between the vote on account which was presented on February 1 this year and the full budget that was presented yesterday for this year, I have not named very many states. The Cabinet, under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, decided to set up a port at Vadhvan, but Maharashtra’s name was not included in the budget yesterday. Does this mean that Maharashtra feels ignored?” she said.
Sitharaman said that 76 thousand crores have been announced for Mahrashtra for that project. “Maharashtra’s name was not taken on vote-on-account. The state’s name was not mentioned even yesterday; does that mean the state got ignored?” she stated.
“And I can take the name of so many different states that have so many major projects. If the speech does not mention the name of a particular state, does that mean the schemes and programmes of the government of India, the externally aided assistance that we obtain from the World Bank, ADB, AIB and so on, do not go to these states?”, she added.
“They go as per routine, and, in the expenditure statement of the government, the department-wise allocation of the government mentions all this,” the minister stated stated.
“I am saying with responsibility that this is a ‘deliberate attempt’ of the opposition parties led by the Congress to give the people the wrong impression that their states were not allocated funds or schemes,” said Sitharaman.
Challenging the Congress, the Finance Minister said, “I would challenge the Congress party that for all the budget speeches they have delivered. Have they named every state of the country in each of their budget speeches? This is an outrageous allegation,” she stated.
This comes after Mallikarjun Kharge condemned the budget presented yesterday and claimed that no other states other than Andhra Pradesh and Bihar received anything.