Opposition leaders protest ‘discriminatory’ Budget in & outside Parl

NEW DELHI: The Opposition INDIA bloc MPs staged a protest on the Parliament premises on Wednesday over the alleged discrimination against Opposition-ruled states in the 2024 Union Budget. Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha, Rahul Gandhi, described the Budget as an “assault on the sanctity of India’s federal structure.”

Besides Rahul Gandhi, Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge, Congress Parliamentary Party chief Sonia Gandhi, Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav, and several MPs from the Congress, Trinamool Congress, Samajwadi Party, DMK, and the Left joined the protest held on the steps leading up to the Makar Dwar of Parliament.

Protesting against the Budget, Kharge said: “This Budget is anti-people, no one has got justice. They talked about a special package, but special status has not been given. This is a deceptive Budget and an injustice to the people.”

Sharing a picture of the protest on his WhatsApp channel, Rahul Gandhi said: “Today, along with INDIA janbandhan MPs, I protested against NDA’s ‘Kursi Bachao Budget’ in the Parliament House premises.”

“INDIA bloc will continue to raise its voice to provide equal justice to every state of India,” Gandhi said in his post on the WhatsApp channel in Hindi.

SP chief Akhilesh Yadav said his state, Uttar Pradesh, has been discriminated against. “They snatched away jobs and are now talking of apprenticeships,” he said. His party’s Rajya Sabha member, Jaya Bachchan, also slammed the Budget, saying youth have been given false promises.

The protesting MPs raised placards such as ‘We want India Budget, not NDA Budget’ and ‘NDA betrays India in Budget’.

“Yesterday, through the Budget, the government of India violated all the principles to keep the federal system,” Congress general secretary, organisation, K C Venugopal, said.

“The aim of the Budget was to protect the government. We are not against giving funds to Andhra Pradesh and Bihar, but other states should also get justice. That is why we are agitating today. Even the people are agitated with this,” he said.

The decision to protest was taken at a meeting of floor leaders of INDIA bloc parties at the 10 Rajaji Marg residence of the Congress president on Tuesday evening.

In the Lok Sabha, INDIA Bloc MPs staged a walkout protesting the alleged discrimination against Opposition-ruled states in the Union Budget. As soon as the House met for the day, Opposition members tried to raise the issue of budgetary allocations.

As Opposition members raised slogans, Speaker Om Birla cautioned them against disrupting the Question Hour. He said members from both sides should follow parliamentary traditions and questioned the Opposition for disrupting House proceedings in a “planned manner.”

Both Birla and Parliamentary Affairs Minister Kiren Rijiju flagged the issue of MPs facing difficulty entering Parliament House due to Opposition protests on the steps of the building.

Birla said several members have written to him about the difficulty they faced. As they were disallowed to raise their issues, Opposition members staged a walkout.

In the Rajya Sabha, the INDIA bloc parties, led by the Congress, staged a

walkout in protest against all states except two being “ignored” in the Budget, an allegation termed “outrageous” by Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, who said all the states never found mention in any of the previous Budgets, including those presented by the Congress. After Chairman Jagdeep Dhankhar rejected notices under Rule 267 that called for the suspension of the listed agenda to take up the issue, Leader of Opposition and Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge said the Union Budget for the

2024-25 fiscal year provided funds and schemes for only two states -- Bihar and Andhra Pradesh. All other states did not find any mention, he said, terming the Budget a “kursi-bachao” document.

The Janata Dal (United), which is in power in Bihar, and the Telugu Desam Party (TDP), the ruling party in Andhra Pradesh, have been demanding special economic packages for their states. Both parties have lent support to the BJP-led NDA government.

In the Budget presented on Tuesday, Sitharaman announced Rs 60,000 crore for Andhra Pradesh and pledged support to get Rs 15,000-crore assistance from multilateral agencies for the southern state.

Kharge said the Congress and the other parties in the Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance (INDIA) “condemn” this discrimination.

As Dhankhar gave Sitharaman the floor to respond, Kharge led the Opposition bloc out of the House, saying they were walking out in protest.

The Finance Minister said she did not name many states either in the interim Budget presented in February ahead of the general election or in the full Budget tabled in Parliament on Tuesday, but that does not mean that government schemes are not working for the states.

She cited the example of Maharashtra, which was not named in either of the Budgets, and said that did not prevent the Union Cabinet from approving the Rs 76,000-crore Vadhavan port project in Dahanu in the state last month.

“Did Maharashtra get ignored because I did not mention the name of Maharashtra? (An amount of) Rs 76,000 crore has been announced for that project,”

she said. Sitharaman said she can go on to cite several other states that have got major projects.

“If the speech does not mention the name of a particular state, does it mean that the schemes of the Government of India, the programmes of the Government of India, the externally-aided assistance which we obtain from the World Bank, ADB, AIIB and institutions like that do not go to these states? They go as per a routine,” she said.

The expenditure statement of the government gives out the item-wise allocation, the finance minister pointed out.

“This is a deliberate attempt of the Opposition parties, led by the Congress, to give an impression to people that ‘oh, nothing has been given to our states, it has only been given to two states.’

“I would challenge the Congress party for all the Budget speeches they have delivered, that in each of the Budget speeches, have they named every state of the country?” she asked. “This is an outrageous allegation,” which is “not acceptable,” she added. As the MPs belonging to Opposition parties returned to the House, the Finance Minister said the Trinamool Congress (TMC) had raised questions on Tuesday about nothing being given to West Bengal in the Budget, but the fact is that several schemes launched by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in the last 10 years have not been implemented in the state. Her statement was met with vociferous Opposition from the

TMC members, who said the BJP-led Centre owes Rs 1 lakh crore to West Bengal.

Dhankhar said 20 hours have been allocated for a discussion on the General Budget and the MPs,

as well as the Finance Minister, will get adequate time to raise issues and respond..