NEW DELHI, Feb 11: The Congress tore into the Government in the Rajya Sabha on Thursday for presenting a “disappointing” budget, with former finance minister P Chidambaram describing it as a “budget for the rich, of the rich and by the rich” that is meant for only “one per cent of India’s population that controls 73 per cent of the country’s wealth”.
Outrightly rejecting the budget for 2021-22, the senior Congress leader also lashed out at the ruling dispensation, charging it with “incompetent economic management”.
Participating in a debate on the budget, Chidambaram said, “The sub-text is, this is a budget for the rich, of the rich and by the rich…. There is nothing for the poor people of India, who continue to suffer…. This is a budget for those one per cent who control 73 per cent of India’s wealth.”
He said the Government is in denial about the slowdown in the economy and believed that the problem in the economy is cyclical and not structural.
“Two years of slowdown before the coronavirus is a reality,” he said.
Chidambaram alleged that the country has witnessed three years of “incompetent economic mismanagement”.
“The honourable finance minister took exception to my using the word incompetent. I cannot use a harsher word in Parliament. I am using the mildest word available to me. Three years of incompetent economic mismanagement means that at the end of 2020-21, we will be exactly where we were in 2017-18,” he said.
Chidambaram said there is no demand in most parts of the country, including in developed states such as Tamil Nadu, and added that it was left to one’s imagination how backward states like Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and Odisha must be coping.
“You have ignored the bulk of India. Who is this budget for?” he asked, while saying that the incompetent management will undo the growth achieved and the borrowings will only be used to fill the huge craters in the economy. “Mark my words, the growth projections will fall short by the end of 2021,” the former finance minister asserted. He said the government projected a 14.8-per cent GDP growth rate and then said it will grow by 11 per cent.
“Inflation next year will be at least five or six per cent…. The arithmetic I have says your growth will only be 9.4 or 8.4…Which is a natural and mechanical growth after the coronavirus-induced slowdown. Do not boast about the numbers. It will take you two-three years to get to a stable GDP. Take the advices of well-meaning critics, address the structural issue of the economy and support the poor. Do not go boasting about these numbers,” Chidambaram said. (PTI)
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