Leading the Opposition charge in the Lok Sabha on Wednesday when the House took up discussion on the Interim Budget, Congress leader Shashi Tharoor asked the Narendra Modi government “kiska saath aur kiska vikas (whose development and with whom is the government) when the poor, women, youth and farmers were among the “worst performing groups” economically.
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Mr. Tharoor accused the Centre of playing the game of “smoke-and-mirrors” and claimed that the Modi government was about “all talk and no action”. He called the ruling NDA as “no data available” to reveal the “real situation of poverty and consumption in the country”.
Separately, opening the discussion on the Finance Bill, Congress leader Manish Tewari raised the issue of fiscal deficit to the tune of ₹17-18 lakh crore every year since 2021.
“If the government is borrowing ₹17 to 18 lakh crore every year, the access of the private sector to market finance, therefore, gets restricted. That is why your investment to GDP ratio is restricted to 29.02%,” Mr. Tewari said.
The Congress leader said that in 2014, the total debt of the government was a little above ₹55 lakh crore but in 10 years, the debt had trebled to over ₹168 lakh crore.
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In a sharp retort to Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman’s remarks describing GDP as governance, development and performance, Mr. Tharoor said that G stands “for governmental intrusion and tax terrorism under the current regime”, D for “demographic betrayal” and P for “poverty continuing”.
“This actual ‘GDP’ also jettisons the trinity of ‘demography, democracy and diversity’ that the government claims to be serving. The demographic dividend is on the cusp of becoming a demographic disaster with the unemployment crisis, K-shaped growth, and the ever-widening schism between the rich and poor,” Mr. Tharoor alleged.
Noting that Ms. Sitharaman talked about four new castes poor, women, youth and farmers, the Congress leader said all four groups were some of the worst performing groups in most categories of social and economic policy performance.
“The unprecedented levels of unemployment have left countless citizens, especially our young demographic workforce, with few prospects for a brighter tomorrow,” he said.
Also Read: 2024 Interim Budget | Biased in favour of rich, says Congress’ Chidambaram
Mr. Tharoor claimed democracy was suffering through this government’s “arrogant contempt” for institutions and cited the suspension of 146 MPs during the last session. He alleged that laws were being bulldozed as per the government’s whims and fancies with no regard for parliamentary procedure.
‘North-South divide’
Hitting back at the Congress, BJP MP Nishikant Dubey accused the Congress of trying to create a North-South divide in the country and asserted that “Ram Rajya” has been ushered in in India under Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
“We are poor, our people go there to work. The entire country knows that more than 80% of the mines are in Jharkhand, Odisha, Bengal, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh.... Did we say we are rich? Did we say south India should not be developed?” he asked.
The MP from Godda in Jharkhand alleged that the Congress had created a “licence, quota, permit raj” after Independence till 1991 and a “loot raj” from 2004 to 2014 under the Manmohan Singh government.
Also Read: Stop creating narrative to divide country into north, south, PM Modi tells Congress
“Since 2014, not just the Ram temple but Ram Rajya has been brought,” he added.
Mr. Dubey also alleged that the Rahul Gandhi-led Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra was being funded by an MP from whose premises huge amount of currency was discovered.
Union Minister Smriti Irani, who represents Amethi, said for 48 years her constituency had a Congress MP but there was no development. “Only when Prime Minister Modi came to power, 10 lakh Jan Dhan bank accounts were opened,” she said.
Trinamool Congress’s Saugato Roy said the Modi government didn’t have any worthy economist or policymaker who can handle the economy.
Nationalist Congress Party MP Supriya Sule said the majority of the wealth of the country was in the hands of top one per cent population. If the government as claimed by it had managed to reduce poverty, then why was it not showing in numbers.
Shiromani Akali Dal MP Harsimrat Kaur Badal said border districts in her State Punjab should be given special grants like backward districts. She also urged the Central government to settle the Chandigarh capital issue in favour of Punjab.
Samajwadi Party MP Dimple Yadav said youth were forced to go to Israel to seek employment as they were not getting jobs here. Around 14,000 industrialists who could have given employment had left the country. “They left due to tax terrorism”, she said.
RSP MP N.K. Premachandran said the government had turned a discussion on budget into an opportunity to glorify its achievements.
Biju Janata Dal’s Bartuhari. Mahtab said economic slowdown in rural India had become an oppressive reality. There were fewer jobs in rural areas and the narrative of rural India’s struggle contrasts sharply with urban success. “The time is ripe for introspection and action for rural growth,” he said.
Congress leader Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury said that many youth had lost employment opportunities due to the ‘Agniveer’ scheme. He said that the number of those who wanted to join armed forces had dropped from 34 lakh to 10 lakh.
At this, Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla asked what was the relevance of the topic in the discussion on budget. Similar question was also raised by BJP MP Nishikant Dubey.
