Congress president and Leader of Opposition in the Rajya Sabha Mallikarjun Kharge on Wednesday jibed Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman sayung that ‘mai bol deta hun, mataji to bolne me expert hai’ and then also accused the BJP-led government on Wednesday of prioritizing only two states, Bihar and Andhra Pradesh, in the Union Budget for 2024-25 while disregarding the rest of the nation.
The Congress chief also dubbed the budget as a “kursi-bachao” document while spearheading the criticism by the grand old party and other INDIA bloc parties against the alleged bias.
“No state got anything in the budget of Modi government. The states where people have rejected BJP, those states got nothing from this budget. Everyone’s plate is empty, and in the plate of two states there are Pakora and Jalebi. This budget has been brought only to save his chair,” Kharge said in Rajya Sabha while targeting the government.
As Rajya Sabha chairman Jagdeep Dhankhar urged Kharge to allow finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman to respond, Kharge remarked, “Mai bol deta hun. Mataji bolne mein to expert hain, mujhe maloom hai. (Let me finish. Mataji is expert in speaking, I am aware of that.)”
Kharge then also said that there can be no development without balance between states.
As finance minister Nirmala Sitharama was given the floor to respond, Kharge led the opposition bloc out of the House in protest.
Sitharaman pointed out that she had not named many states in either the interim budget presented in February or the full budget tabled on Tuesday. She highlighted that this does not imply that government schemes are not benefiting those states and cited the example of Maharashtra, which was not mentioned in either budget but still received approval for the Rs 76,000-crore Vadhavan port project in Dahanu last month.
The finance minister challenged the Congress party to review their own budget speeches and determine if they had named every state in the country. She called the opposition’s allegation “outrageous”.
Kharge mentioned that states like Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Karnataka, Maharashtra, Punjab, Haryana, Rajasthan, Chhattisgarh, Odisha, and Delhi were completely neglected.
He condemned the budget, asserting that the entire INDIA alliance, from Kanyakumari to Kashmir, would protest against it.
The Congress leader also stressed that political loyalties change over time and condemned the government’s discriminatory attitude.