Opposition parties on Monday said the interim budget was like “Satyam’s balance sheet” as it hid the real fiscal deficit while painting a rosy picture of the economy and offered “poll lollipops” with the upcoming Lok Sabha elections in mind without tackling real issues.
Accusing the government of “fudging” figures, senior BJP leader Arun Jaitley said, “Fiscal deficit figures are unrealistic. It is much more. The budget figures are like the Satyam balance sheet.
“We are living in a period of grave world-wide economic crisis but the government did not try to address issues of unemployment,” Jaitley alleged.
While CPI-M Politburo member Sitaram Yechury said the interim budget was nothing but a lengthy document and government had, in fact, lowered the expenditure on major social structure schemes, CPI leaders Gurudas Dasgupta and D Raja called it a “lollipop” budget meant for the coming elections.
Another Politburo member Brinda Karat said the budget was an “election manifesto”.
“Though the impact of recession on the economy is very clear, the budget did not address the issue... it was not even mentioned in the budget,” Karat said.