Opposition Member of Parliament (MPs) led by INDIA bloc alliance has chalked out a protest plan which will begin on Wednesday against the Union Budget announcements and extend till the first meeting of the reconstituted governing council of the NITI Ayog on Saturday.
“INDIA MPs will protest against the discrimination of states in the budget at 10:15am in front of the Parliament House entrance,” said Congress’ Lok Sabha whip Manickam Tagore.
The floor leaders of the INDIA parties met on Tuesday evening at Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge to chalk out its plan after the budget was presented by Union finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman.
“The concept of budget has been destroyed this year. They (BJP-led central government) have totally discriminated against the majority of the states. Therefore, general sentiments of INDIA alliance are that we have to protest,” Congress leader KC Venugopal said after the meeting.
While the budget included a host of announcements for Bihar and Andhra Pradesh—states governed by key allies of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), the Opposition alleged that the other states didn’t get much.
To be sure, the Opposition will participate in the discussions on budget and Congress will field Kumari Selja, Shashi Tharoor and Praniti Shinde in the initial hours of the debate.
Congress also announced that it will not send its chief ministers to the upcoming meeting of the NITI Ayog’s governing council on July 27.
“The Union Budget presented today was extremely discriminatory and dangerous, which completely goes against the principles of federalism and fairness that the Union Government must follow. In protest, INC CMs will be boycotting the NITI Aayog meeting scheduled for 27th July,” Venugopal announced after the INDIA group meeting.
“This government’s attitude is completely antithetical to Constitutional principles. We will not participate in an event that is solely designed to hide the true, discriminatory colours of this regime,” Venugopal added.
Tamil Nadu CM MK Stalin also announced that he will boycott the Niti Ayog meeting.
“While the budget includes announcements for states ruled by BJP allies, there is no guarantee these states will receive the promised funds, just as Tamil Nadu has been denied funds for the #ChennaiMetro for the past three years. Shockingly, the words ‘Tamil’ or ‘Tamil Nadu’ do not appear even once in the entire budget speech by Hon’ble @nsitharaman, who previously began her budget speeches with ‘Thirukkural’. In light of this blatant neglect of Tamil Nadu, I have decided to boycott the @NITIAayog meeting scheduled for 27th July, chaired by the Hon’ble PM,” he posted on his official X (formerly Twitter) account.
To be sure, other INDIA bloc alliance chief ministers have not yet announced their boycott of the meeting.
West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee, Punjab CM Bhagwant Mann and other INDIA bloc alliance CMs are expected to join the meeting.
“The budget distribution is not need-based, but only to save the chair,” Kharge said on Tuesday.
“The budget has pleased just two people, while ignoring the interests of 140 crore Indians”, in a veiled reference to the party chiefs of Telugu Desam Party (TDP) in Andhra Pradesh and Janata Dal (United) in Bihar, key allies of the BJP.
Leader of the opposition (LoP) in Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi termed the budget as a “kursi bachao (save chair)” budget.
“Appease Allies: Hollow promises to them at the cost of other states. - Appease Cronies: Benefits to AA with no relief for the common Indian. - Copy and Paste: Congress manifesto and previous budgets,” he posted on X.
Kharge claimed that the budget ignored significant sections of the population that included the middle class, farmers, youth, Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes.
“The BJP government had tried to settle scores with the SCs, STs and backward classes as most of them had voted for the INDIA bloc this time,” Kharge said, pointing out that the budget failed to address “the issue of rising prices under which the entire country was reeling, and people were suffering.”
“The party had expected the budget to address the long pending issues of the farmers including the legal guarantee for the MSP (minimum support price), subsidy on fertilisers and other things,” he said.
“But none of these things were mentioned in the budget”, he said.
The government buys farm produce from cultivators at minimum support prices.
Farmers have been demanding that this procurement should be guaranteed by law.
Referring to the preceding United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government’s schemes like rural jobs guarantee, food security law, health mission, right to education, midday meal scheme, Kharge asked the BJP government whether it had brought any such welfare scheme in the past 10 years.
Minutes after the budget was presented, Samajwadi Party (SP) chief Akhilesh Yadav said, “In the eleventh budget, the issues of unemployment, inflation, farmers, women and youth have vanished. This budget is also a bundle of despair. Thankfully, people are still alive in these conditions.”
“There is no provision in the budget for the safety of women,” SP MP and Yadav’s wife Dimple Yadav told media persons.
“The kitchen has not been taken care of because the government does not want to take any step regarding inflation”, she said.
