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Contribution of this budget is 'Na Jawan na Kisan': Shashi Tharoor
Shashi Tharoor delivered the critique of this year’s Union budget on behalf of his party, right after the Prime Minister had concluded his reply to the motion of thanks on the President's address.
Congress Member of Parliament Shashi Tharoor on Wednesday targeted the Central government over this year's Union budget allocations in the areas of health, agriculture, defence, and fiscal stimulus. Invoking Lal Bahadur Shastri’s words the Congress MP said the budget is neither meant for the Jawan nor for the Kisan.
“The government has come out with a budget which deceives people with respect to the allocation in defence and health sectors. Lal Bahadur Shastri had said 'Jai Jawan Jai Kisan'. The contribution of this budget is 'Na Jawan na Kisan',” Tharoor said in Parliament.
Tharoor delivered the critique of this year’s Union budget on behalf of his party, right after the Prime Minister had concluded his reply to the motion of thanks on the President's address.
“The budget has delivered a blow to our hopes of expanding and developing the healthcare ecosystem of the country,” said Tharoor.
He attacked the healthcare allocations in this year’s budget citing that a major chunk has been allocated to a one-time expense of carrying out the Covid-19 vaccination drive and to the department of health and family welfare.
“Out of all these claimed allocations 35,000 crore is just a one time expenditure for the ongoing Covid-19 vaccination programme. Another 60,000 crore for the department of drinking water and sanitation. So as a result of this the actual allocation to the department of health and family welfare was only 71.269 crores, which marked not a 137% increase but a decline of nearly 7,000 crores or 10.84%” Tharoor told the Parliament.
Tharoor accused the government of going back on their promise of expanding healthcare allocation and in the process betraying the frontline workers who have been at the forefront of the nation’s fight against Covid-19.
“Together not only are these paltry allocations a reversal of the government’s own promise to the nation of increasing healthcare expenditure to 2.5% of our GDP by 2025, but they constitute an unconscionable betrayal of the countless sacrifices of our healthcare and frontline workers at the height of a pandemic.” remarked the former diplomat.
Commenting on Nirmala Sitharaman invoking India’s historic win at Gabba, Tharoor said that the budget did not espouse the heroics witnessed at Brisbane.
“Instead of the Brisbane heroics we got a Chennai collapse” said Tharoor.
