In tune with the BJP’s shift towards a pro-poor politics, leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha Sushma Swaraj stressed the need to eliminate hunger and poverty at the FICCI meet.
“Poverty and inequality have increased in India,” she said, attacking the Budget as “a tired man’s
Budget”.
“Just Rs 300 crore has been allocated for irrigation,” she said. “Prasad baant rahe ho kya (Are you distributing prasad)?”
Swaraj spoke out against diverting irrigable land to industry and SEZs.
She praised India Inc. “For 60 years, industrialists were criticised as exploiters… Industrialists deserve social recognition... as drivers of growth and employment.”