"She Said 'Poor' Only Twice": Congress's P Chidambaram Slams Union Budget
NDTV
"In the 90-minute speech, the Finance Minister did not think it necessary to utter even once the words 'unemployment, poverty, inequality'. She said the word 'poor' twice," P Chidambaram told NDTV
Former Union finance minister P Chidambaram trashed the Union budget unveiled today, saying it had nothing for the poor or the unemployed and questioned if the capital investment outlay will be used. His party, the Congress, has alleged that a chunk of the capital outlay in the current financial year.
Union minister Nirmala Sitharaman, who presented the budget in parliament today, did not mention the unemployed at all or only mentioned the poor twice, Mr Chidambaram said.
"In the 90-minute speech, the Finance Minister did not think it necessary to utter even once the words 'unemployment, poverty, inequality'. She said the word 'poor' twice," Mr Chidambaram told NDTV in an exclusive interview.
"Now what is there in this budget for the poor? Has indirect taxes been cut? Has GST been cut? Has the prices of petrol, diesel, fertiliser, cement, which poor middle classes use, have been cut?"In this context he quoted a research by the Azim Premji University, which says that as many as 5.6 crore people fell below the poverty line in the last three years, mainly because of the pandemic. "Now what have you done to lift them above the poverty line?" he said.
