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‘What is this poverty?’: Sitharaman mocks Rahul Gandhi's 2013 remark
Without naming Rahul Gandhi, Sitharaman said a Congress leader had said poverty is a state of mind as she asked the opposition what poverty they were referring to.
Finance minister Nirma Sitharaman on Friday tore into the Congress and Rahul Gandhi as she asked the opposition which poor people they are alleging have been left out from the Budget 2022. Without naming Rahul Gandhi, Nirmala Sitharaman referred to his 2013 comment that poverty is a state of mind and asked whether this is what the Congress wanted in the Budget. “Please, be clear, is this the poverty that you wanted me to address, the poverty of mind?” Sitharaman said.
As Shiv Sena MP Priyanka Chaturvedi protested that the finance minister is mocking the poor people, Sitharaman said, “I am not mocking the poor people. The person who had mocked the poor people, you are in alliance with his party." The deputy chairman of the Rajya Sabha said only Sitharaman's speech will be on record. “I am astonished that a thinking lady is saying that I am mocking the poor while her party is in alliance with the Congress leader's party. This is not my statement. I only quoted the person,” Sitharaman said as protests broke out following her reference to 'poverty is a state of mind'.
Cong, DMK & IUML walk out during Nirmala Sitharaman's reply in Lok Sabha
Taking the help of a Tamil proverb, Sitharaman said she did not take any name but everybody started defending. “If you want a rough translation of the Tamil proverb, it is this: during the rainy seasons no one knows where the frog is, but it goes croak-croak. Same happened here.” Sitharaman said.
In 2013, Rahul Gandhi had said, "Poverty is just a state of mind. It does not mean the scarcity of food, money or material things. If one possesses self-confidence, then one can overcome poverty."
Sitharaman on Friday was speaking in the Upper House on Budget 2022 and was replying to the questions. Replying to the charges of the former finance minister that Budget 2022 did not have anything for the poor, Nirmala Sitharaman said, “What is the poor that you are talking about?” “The former [Congress] president said the poverty does not mean the scarcity of food, money or material things. If one possesses self-confidence, then one can overcome it, said the Congress leader. He said it's a state of mind. I've not named the person but we know who it is,” Sitharaman said. She also said that the comment was widely reported in media and she was just quoting the Congress leader.
Then Sitharaman came to senior Congress leader Kapil Sibal's remark that 'India is not in Amrit Kaal but in Rahu Kaal since 2014'. The finance minister said 'Rahu-Kaal' is what produces G-23. Referring to the 2013 incident of Rahul Gandhi trashing then Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's ordinance, Sitharaman said, "That was the Rahu-kaal".
G-23 is a group of 23 rebel Congress leaders. Incidentally, Kapil Sibal is one of them
"Senior leaders of the party are leaving the party. The party is giving the slogan of 'Ladki hoon lad sakti hoon' but the women in Rajasthan can't fight," Sitharaman said.
On charges levelled by the opposition that Nirmal Sitharaman does not know the ground reality as she is not an elected member, Sitharaman said, "Did the honourable member imply that all Rajya Sabha members of their time, including the former Prime Minister, were disconnected from the reality?"
