FM: Criticism a ploy to derail ‘Viksit Bharat’

Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman defends the government's Viksit Bharat agenda, questions Global Hunger Index data, and refutes budget criticism.

Union finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Tuesday alleged a conspiracy was being hatched to derail the government’s Viksit Bharat (developed India) agenda, and pointed out that the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) has a superior record than previous governments in boosting growth, controlling inflation, helping farmers and expanding social justice.

Union minister of finance and corporate affairs Nirmala Sitharaman speaks in the Lok Sabha during the Monsoon Session of Parliament, in New Delhi on Tuesday. (SansadTV)

In her reply to the debate on the Union budget in the Lok Sabha, Sitharaman also questioned the reliability of the Global Hunger Index data that placed India below conflict-ridden countries such as Pakistan and Sudan, dismissed criticism that she only named two states in her budget speech, and defended the government’s allocation for social sectors.

“After independence, several institutions were made to keep the society united, but today, through a conspiracy, the fault lines of our society are being exposed. Mistrust is being created against each other in the society through fallacies, lies, and deceit”, she said towards the end of her speech, amid din in the House.

“Society, Parliament, army and economy, all are under attack,” she added.

In a speech that spanned nearly two hours, an aggressive finance minister took on the Opposition which alleged that the budget catered to just two states, Bihar and Andhra Pradesh, ruled by NDA partner parties, and ignored marginalised castes, farmers and the middle class.

“Efforts are being made to create such a situation that even a spark will lead to a lot of conflict. Similarly, the attacks on the armed forces are also being intensified. On… one pretext or the other, efforts are made to divide the army and the soldiers,” she said. Her reference was to the Opposition’s pointed criticism of the new Agnipath scheme for recruitment to the armed forces that was brought in by her government.

Hailing the “hard work” of Indians who contributed to the country’s rapid economic growth after the devastating impact of Covid pandemic, she said,“So, entrepreneurship itself is being made a villain… Hardworking entrepreneurs are building this country. The conspiracy is to end India’s entrepreneurship culture even before it fully blooms. And, thereby, hitting at India’s core, backbone, which is the entrepreneurship, small and medium units, and enterprises [that are] building India.”

But she largely steered away from criticism of her tweaks to the capital gains levy, as well as the removal of indexation benefits for some asset classes.

Sitharaman gave examples of past budgets presented by the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance regime to prove that absence of a state’s name in the speech didn’t mean discrimination in allocations. Such claims are misleading, she said. “I have been picking up on Budget speeches since 2004-2005, 2005-2006, 2006-2007, 2007-2008 and so on. The Budget of 2004-2005 did not take the name of 17 states. I would like to ask the members of the UPA government at that time — did money not go to those 17 states? Did they stop it?” she said.

She went on to directly address criticism by Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha, Rahul Gandhi, who had alleged low representation of marginalised castes in the higher bureaucracy and showed a photo of the Halwa ceremony—a traditional ceremony marking the preparations of the budget documents— in the finance ministry to underscore his point.

Sitharaman said the ritual held an emotive appeal for officials who isolate themselves for over a week while the budget is printed – a tradition that began in the 1980s when budget papers were printed at a press on Minto Road, and the sweet dish was prepared by the staff. “The practice continued in the North Block and involvement of FM first time happened in 2013-14 during the UPA regime. Halwa is an emotional and sentimental matter... How can you (Gandhi) deal (with) such an important matter so lightly?” she said, asking further if UPA-era ministers were asked about the caste composition of their teams.

“Why was the halwa ceremony not cancelled at that time? You (Gandhi) had the remote control power. How many SC, ST or OBC officers were there at the ceremony at that time?” Sitharaman questioned.

Refuting charges of the Opposition that the budget ignored scheduled caste (SC), scheduled tribes (ST) and women, Sitharaman said their allocations went up substantially. In 2023-24, allocation for SCs was ₹1,59,148 crore, which was raised to ₹1,65,493 crore in 2024-25. Similarly, for STs, it was raised from ₹1,19,706 crore to ₹1,24,909 crore and for women the allocation was raised from ₹2,38,220 crore last financial year to ₹3,27,158 crore this year, she said.

She further quoted former prime ministers Jawaharlal Nehru and Rajiv Gandhi to allege that the Congress stood against reservations and social justice.

On inflation, she pointed out that between 2020 and 2023, it was much lower than the global average. “PM Modi, in spite of Covid, planned the economy in such a way that our inflation did not get affected so badly,” she said.

“During the NDA’s time (in 1999-2004) it was 3.8%. In UPA-I (2004-09) it was 6%, and in UPA-II (2009-14) it was 10.2%. So, during UPA-I and II put together it was 8.1%. In the NDA-I (2014-19) it was 4.5%, NDA-II (2019-24) 5.7%, NDA-I and II put together it was 5.1%,” she added.

Stating that fiscal prudence without compromising on welfare schemes was the hallmark of the Modi Government, Sitharaman said that the UPA used to do off-budget borrowing to obfuscate fiscal deficit numbers. “Lack of transparency was there during UPA, not in the NDA government,” she said.

Replying to questions raised by members on poverty and the Global Hunger Index (GHI), the finance minister called GHI a “flawed” indicator that may not work for India. “I want to say something about the reliability of this Global Hunger Index. Conflict-ridden countries… like Pakistan, like Sudan have been kept above India…,” she said. GHI is published by Concern Worldwide and Welthungerhilfe. In the 2023 Global Hunger Index, India was ranked 111th out of the 125 countries, drawing sharp rebuke from the government which questioned the methodology.

Sitharaman said the government was committed to the welfare of farmers unlike the Congress, which she alleged was indulging in politics over minimum support prices (MSP).

In 2007, the UPA government did not implement the MS Swaminathan Commission’s suggestion of giving MSP of more than 50% of the weighted average cost of crops. Agriculture allocations that stood ₹21,934 crore in 2013-14, was raised by over five times to ₹1.23 lakh crore in the current financial year, she said. The Modi government gave the PM Kisan Samman Nidhi (a ₹6,000 annual amount in instalments) to farmers and so far, more than ₹3.2 lakh crore was disbursed to 110 million farmers. “The Opposition is shedding crocodile tears,” she said.

Towards the end of her speech, she hit out at Trinamool Congress lawmaker Sougata Ray over his comments that inequality in India today was worse than in British times, and underlined the economic downturn in West Bengal over the years.

TMC MP Abhishek Banerjee rebutted the finance minister and accused the BJP of “misleading people”. “Bengal’s name is not even mentioned in the budget, not a single penny has been given to Bengal and they are using Bengal’s tax money to build bridges in Bihar, which will collapse. They are misusing people’s money, exploiting people,” he said to news agency ANI outside the House.