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Union Budget shows India’s confidence: PM Narendra Modi
The principles behind the budget, Modi said, include expansion of new opportunities for growth, new opportunities for the youth, infrastructure development and helping new sectors grow
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday described the Union Budget 2021-22 as proactive and said villages and farmers “are at the heart of this budget”.
In a televised address shortly after Union finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman presented the budget, the Prime Minister said with the focus on ease of living, health and wealth, the budget shows India’s confidence and will instil self-confidence in the world. “The budget has the vision of self-reliance and features every section of the society,” the Prime Minister said.
The principles behind the budget, he said, include expansion of new opportunities for growth, new opportunities for the youth, giving new dimension to human resource, infrastructure development and helping new sectors grow.
The Prime Minister, who had earlier said the Union Budget should be seen in continuation of the four or five mini budgets or the ₹20 lakh crore economic packages announced by the finance minister in 2020, said the budget has vision of aatmanirbharta or self-reliance.
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“This budget has a special focus on strengthening the agriculture sector and boosting farmers’ income. Villages and farmers are at its heart,” Modi said.
At a time when a section of farmers is agitating against the recently announced farm bills that they allege are anti-farmer and seem to benefit the corporates, the Prime Minister said that the budget focuses on increasing farmers’ income. He said farmers will be able to get loans easily and the new laws will allow for strengthening the APMC markets with the help of the Agriculture Infrastructure Fund. On Sunday, the Prime Minister reiterated that the government stood by its offer to farmers at the last meeting between the farmers’ representatives and the government.
Prime Minister Modi also said that the government, while keeping up with fiscal sustainability, stressed on increasing the budget size, and did not pressurise citizens.
On the provisions in the budget for the development needs of southern states, the northeastern states and Ladakh, he said these aspects will play a key role in turning the coastal states such as Tamil Nadu, Kerala, West Bengal into “business powerhouses”.
The finance minister said national highway projects of 8,500km by March 2022 will be awarded and an additional 11,000km of National Highway Corridor will be completed; she also announced new projects for Tamil Nadu, Kerala and West Bengal. All three states will vote for a new assembly in the next few months.
Referring to the government’s Covid-19 response, he said, it was not “reactive” but “proactive”. “We have gone beyond active and have given a pro-active budget,” he said.
While the Prime Minister said the “positive early response” to the budget is indicative of the government having given proper attentions to its responsibility towards fiscal sustainability while increasing the size of the budget, Opposition parties slammed the government.
Congress MP and former party president Rahul Gandhi said the budget “must” support MSMEs, farmers and workers to generate employment and increase healthcare expenditure to save lives.
“Forget putting cash in the hands of people, the Modi government plans to hand over India’s assets to his crony capitalist friends,” he said.
Congress MPs Jasbir Singh Gill and Gurjeet Singh Aujla wore black gowns to Parliament, as a mark of their protest.
The BJP’s former ally the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) staged a walkout while the budget was being presented.
SAD MP, Harsimrat Badal, who is also a former food supplies minister in Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Cabinet, termed it “unfortunate” that the government is still talking about phone calls when farmers are sitting at their doorstep.
She said it is “shameful” that the farmers are sitting out in the cold for months but there was no mention of them in either the President Ram Nath Kovind’s joint address to Parliament or Prime Minister Modi’s monthly radio programme Mann Ki Baat.
“Hundred people have died. For three months they have been sitting, literally, at the doorstep waiting to be heard. I am surprised he is still waiting for a phone call. The need of the hour was to listen after 11 rounds of talks and give them assurance that no more need to die... We are still talking about phone calls, it is very unfortunate,” Harsimrat Badal told Hindustan Times.
Nagaur MP Hanuman Beniwal whose Rashtriya Loktantrik Party also broke away from the National Democratic Alliance over the farm laws also staged a walkout. He also criticised the government for not repealing the laws.
