Leader of Opposition (LoP) in Rajya Sabha Mallikarjun Kharge on Wednesday condemned the Union budget 2024-25 for allegedly being discriminatory towards states. Kharge said the 'plates' of all states except two –Bihar and Andhra Pradesh– were left empty in the Union budget presented by finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman.
“No state received anything,” Kharge said, naming states like Tamil Nadu, Maharashtra, Punjab, Haryana, Rajasthan, Chhattisgarh and his home state Karnataka.
Kharge alleged that the budget was only to “please a few people” and protect the chair.
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Taking a swipe at Sitharaman, who represents Karnataka in the upper house, the Congress president said, “I was expecting that I'll get the most. But we didn't get anything.”
As Rajya Sabha chairman Jagdeep Dhankhar asked the Leader of Opposition to let Sitharaman respond, Kharge quipped, “Main bol deta hun. Mataji bolne mein toh expert hain mujhe maloom hai. (Let me finish. Mataji is expert in speaking, I am aware of that.)”
“Yeh kursi bachane ke liye yeh sab hua hai...We will condemn it and protest against it. All INDIA alliance parties will protest...How will development happen if there is no balance?” the veteran Congress leader said, before walking out of Rajya Sabha.
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{{/usCountry}}“Yeh kursi bachane ke liye yeh sab hua hai...We will condemn it and protest against it. All INDIA alliance parties will protest...How will development happen if there is no balance?” the veteran Congress leader said, before walking out of Rajya Sabha.
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{{/usCountry}}Denying allegations of discrimination, the finance minister said it is not possible to name every state in a budget speech.
"Let me take Maharashtra for instance, between vote on account and yesterday's budget, cabinet has passed a very important decision to set up a very big port in Vadhavan," Sitharaman said, referring to the proposed deep sea port in Palghar district.
"Did Maharashtra get ignored because it didn't name Maharashtra?" the finance minister asked rhetorically. " ₹76,000 crore have been announced for that project."
Terming the opposition's allegation “outrageous”, Sitharaman accused the Congress party of deliberately misleading the public.
"I am saying with responsibility that this is a 'deliberate attempt' of the opposition parties led by the Congress to give the people the wrong impression that their states were not allocated funds or schemes," said Sitharaman.
INDIA bloc MPs, including Congress Parliamentary Party chief Sonia Gandhi and Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi, staged a protest in Parliament premises on Wednesday over the alleged discrimination against opposition-ruled states in the Union Budget.
Besides Kharge, Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi, several MPs of the Congress, TMC, Samajwadi Party, DMK and the Left joined the protest held on the steps leading up to the Makar Dwar of Parliament.