The Opposition protested on Wednesday in both Houses of Parliament, accusing the Narendra Modi government of discriminating among states in the budget based on political considerations.
The protests came a day after Bihar and Andhra Pradesh — the states ruled by key NDA allies — were given special grants in the budget presented by finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman. The Opposition parties alleged that the short-of-majority BJP had used the budget to buy stability and given the short shrift to Opposition-ruled states.
“I never saw such a budget ever. This has been done to please some leaders to save the government. The states that rejected the BJP have not received any grants. How will they develop? We condemn this,” Congress's Mallikarjun Kharge told the Rajya Sabha during Zero Hour.
Responding to Kharge’s charge, Sitharaman sought to defend the government. “In every budget, you do not get the opportunity to name every state…. If any state is not mentioned (in the budget speech), does it mean the projects would not go there? I challenge the Congress. Do they give names of all states in every budget?” she told the House.
The INDIA bloc parties staged a symbolic walkout from both Houses to protest against the "unfair treatment" and later participated in the discussion on the budget to voice their concerns.
“This is the death knell of federalism. You cannot pick and choose one state and deny grants to others. Tamil or Tamil Nadu find no mention in the speech by the finance minister. Please remember there are other states in India,” former finance minister and Congress MP P. Chidambaram said, initiating the discussion in the Upper House.
Trinamool Rajya Sabha member Jawhar Sircar said the Centre had declared an economic war on Bengal. It has stopped funds to the state under central-sponsored schemes such as the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act, PM Awas Yojna and the PM Gram Sadak Yojna.
“This budget makes it abundantly clear that the BJP has run out of ideas. Their priorities chiefly revolve around appeasing their two allies, forgetting there are 26 other states and eight Union territories whose people have nothing to be happy about,” Congress leader Shashi Tharoor told the Lok Sabha.
Tharoor also flagged "discrimination" against Opposition-ruled southern states. “Four other states have received the government’s support for natural calamities (all NDA-ruled states). On the other hand, INDIA alliance states find themselves cast out and ignored,” he said.
“Indeed, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and Kerala have time and again sought funds for natural calamities, from cyclones to rapid coastal erosion, and they have got none. Bihar received ₹26,000 crore for highways, but Karnataka had sought and got nothing for the critical road infrastructure projects in Bangalore,” Tharoor added.
DMK leader Dayanidhi Maran launched a scathing attack against Modi in the Lok Sabha. Maran recalled a poll campaign speech by Modi where he said it was “unfortunate” he was not born a Tamilian and wished to be born in the state in his next birth.
“In the last phase when he (Modi) goes to Odisha, he says how can you give the control of Odisha to Tamilians,” the DMK leader told the House. “This showed his anger. It got depicted in the budget. The people of Tamil Nadu have been cheated,” Maran added.
The DMK leader said Sitharaman had seen the devastating floods in Thoothukudi and promised to help. “Till now not a rupee has been given,” he alleged.
“We have nothing against Andhra or Bihar but why is Tamil Nadu being singled out? The people of Tamil Nadu will never forgive you for this betrayal,” he added.
Supriya Sule of the NCP (Sharad Pawar) slammed the government for claiming to have lifted 25 crore people out of poverty. “They are very proud of feeding 80 crore people... but how come that after 10 years you are still feeding 80 crore people and at the same time claiming that 25 crore people have been lifted out of multi-dimensional poverty?” she said.
