The Hindu : National : Manmohan’s statement far from truth: BJP

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National

Manmohan’s statement far from truth: BJP

New Delhi: The Bharatiya Janata Party on Thursday attacked the government in the Rajya Sabha by seeking to pick holes in Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s statements blaming the NDA for “distress of farmers.”

“Prime Minister’s reply on the Presidential speech was far from truth,” BJP leader Murli Manohar Joshi said while initiating the discussion on the budget in the House.

“It seems the Prime Minister and the Finance Minister suffer from weak memory,” he said.

“While they say that the government was busy in clearing the debris and distress of the NDA rule, the truth is that the Economic Survey 2003-04 had something else to say,” the BJP leader said.

Weeks after the NDA rule, the 2003-04 Survey had said that the economy was in a resilient mode and the economy was an appropriate mix of fiscal and monetary policy, he said.

He alleged that the UPA rule has converted the “country from being a foodgrain surplus nation during the NDA rule to a foodgrain deficit nation.”

‘Half-hearted’

Brinda Karat of the CPI(M) said many a proposal in the budget are “half-hearted” and do not fulfil the assurance of the National Common Minimum Programme (NCMP).

She said the biggest failure of the government has been on the front of price rise. There was hope that the Finance Minister would take some corrective measures to control price rise, but “he has failed,” she said.

Welcoming the Rs.60,000 crore debt waiver and relief package, Ms. Karat questioned why there has been a confusion over the funding of the scheme. At least, the Finance Minister should have indicated from where the money would come from.

She expressed shock at the fact that while the government has forgone Rs.1,00,000 crore in terms of revenue for the corporate sector, it has announced no benefits for ‘anganwadi’ workers.

Santosh Bagrodia (Cong) said the land limit for deciding on waiver of loan to farmers should be set according to fertility of the land - larger land holder in Rajasthan qualifying for the waiver due to land being less fertile when compared with a farmer in Punjab.

For farmers other than small and marginal, he wanted complete waiver of interest liability and a rebate of up to 50 per cent on the outstanding principal.

NCP’s Supriya Sule and Congress’ Syeda Anwara Taimur hailed the budget while Samajwadi Party’s Brij Bhushan Tiwari dubbed it as one which is of no use to the common man. — PTI

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