The Congress on Tuesday accused the government of presenting a “capitalist budget” in “contemptuous disregard” of the people’s sufferings, arguing that this was because the BJP’s electoral success rested on divisive politics and not performance.

Former finance minister P. Chidambaram said the budget had nothing for the poor or the farmers and no measures for employment generation.

“The government behaves and acts as though it is on the right path and has delivered on the issues that matter to the common people. This is false. This is also bull-headed obduracy. This also reflects the government’s contemptuous disregard of the burdens and sufferings of the people,” he said.

Asked how the government could have presented such a budget ahead of crucial Assembly polls, Chidambaram said: “Because they don’t care. They are not going into the elections based on record or performance. They are not going into the elections on the basis of assurances and reassurances to the people.

“They are simply going into the elections on the basis that they can divide Indian society into Hindus and non-Hindus and capture the bulk of the Hindu votes.”

Chidambaram added: “It’s a cold, clever calculation that religion and Hindutva will propel us (the BJP) back to power. Farmers… people with children, people who lost jobs and incomes, must wake up and question what is going on. Fertiliser cost is up, fuel and power cost is up…. Hold the BJP accountable. I sincerely hope people will wake up to the reality of the BJP.”

The Congress veteran argued the Centre should have taken urgent steps to help the farmers grappling with higher input costs, children suffering from malnutrition and hunger, and those whose education got disrupted by Covid.

“Another concern is jobs. They promised two crore jobs every year. Now the finance minister says the Gati Shakti will create 60 lakh jobs in five years. There is a saying in Tamil — the donkey shrank slowly and slowly and turned into an insect.”

Rahul Gandhi posted a tweet liberally sprinkled with zeros: “M0di G0vernment’s Zer0 Sum Budget! Nothing for — Salaried class — Middle class — The poor & deprived — Youth — Farmers — MSMEs.”

Chidambaram said: “I was astonished that the finance minister was outlining a plan for the next 25 years, which she called the Amrit Kaal! The government seems to believe that the present does not need any attention and the people living in the present can be asked to wait patiently until the Amrit Kaal dawns.

“This is nothing but mocking the people of India, especially the poor and the deprived. There was not a word in the speech about any cash assistance to the very poor who have been pushed into extreme poverty and suffered immensely during the last two years.

“By any standards, today’s budget speech was the most capitalist speech ever read by a finance minister. She has mastered the jargon of capitalist economics. Read her speech again: count the number of times she used the words ‘digital’, ‘portal’, ‘IT-based’, ‘paperless’, ‘database’, ‘ecosystem’, ‘global’, ‘atmanirbhar’. The word ‘poor’ occurs twice in paragraph 6, and we thank the FM for remembering that there are poor people in this country. Welfare thrown to the winds.”

On macro-economic indicators, Chidambaram said: “The fiscal deficit for 2021-22 has overshot the target of 6.8 per cent and is estimated at 6.9 per cent. For next year, it will be 6.4 per cent. That is an insufficient correction if the goal is to reach 4 per cent in three years hence by 2025-26.

“The financing of the fiscal deficit is also a matter of concern. Seventy per cent of the deficit in 2022-23 will be financed by market borrowing as against 55 per cent in the current year, crowding out private-sector borrowing. The worry from the welfare angle is greater. Every key subsidy has been slashed, from fertilisers to petroleum products and food. There will be less expenditure on agriculture and allied activities and the MGNREGA.”

Chidambaram said the total subsidy bill had been cut by a humongous 27 per cent.

“This is the unkindest cut in this budget. The next worry is about raising more resources. The FM is betting on heavy market borrowing and an increase in corporate tax (plus Rs 85,000 crore), personal income tax (plus Rs 85,000 crore) and GST (plus Rs 105,000 crore). There is not a word about raising more resources from the rich, especially the very, very rich 142 persons whose wealth in the last two years has increased from Rs 2,314,000 crore to Rs 5,316,000 crore.”

On the positives in the budget, he said: “The finance minister has promised capital expenditure of Rs 750,000 crore in 2022-23 against the revised estimate of Rs 602,711 crore in 2021-22. I welcome that. The minister has promised an additional borrowing of Rs 100,000 crore to the states free of interest. (And) the budget speech was mercifully short at one hour and 30 minutes.”