Opposition: Union Budget 2017 ‘damp squib’, ‘heartless’

New Delhi: Dubbing the Union Budget as “damp squib,” Opposition parties on Wednesday said the document lacked a clear vision. Denouncing the Budget, Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi said it was a “damp squib” and there was just “sher-o-shayari” in it. West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee said the Budget was “clueless, useless and heartless” and questioned why no data on demonetisation was given. TMC had vehemently opposed the demonetisation decision. However, BJP president Amit Shah hailed the Budget saying Prime Minister Narendra Modi has fulfilled the promise made in 2014 to curb black money and bring transparency in political funding and the Budget was aimed at all-round development with sops for the youth, women, farmers, the poor and middle class.     

RJD chief Lalu Prasad said the budget was “bereft of any substance” and questioned the rationale of continuing with a railway minister who did not present the Rail Budget. He described Mr Modi as a “twin brother” of new American President Donald Trump who, he said, was seen “taking wayward decisions” since ascending to the top chair in the US.

The Left parties termed the Budget as “contractionary” and a “complete gimmick” while alleging that the figures given by finance minister Arun Jaitley do not match reality.

Taking a dig at Mr Jaitley over his remark on demonetisation, former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said there was is no indication as to what makes him convinced that its effect will be temporary and not affect the growth of the economy. He however, reserved his reaction on the budget document saying it has far too many items and it is very difficult to react about the impact. When asked whether the focus of the budget was right, Dr Singh, a noted economist, said, “(As for focus) plan-non plan distinction is gone. In its place, revenue and capital have been introduced. One needs to see how will it impact on the economy.”

Accusing the government of bringing the Budget proposals keeping in mind the Assembly elections in five states and indulging in jugglery of words and numbers, the Opposition parties were however, appreciative of the government’s proposal to cleanse political funding by bringing in transparency.

Appreciating the proposals on political funding, Mr Gandhi said “any step to clean political funding will be supported by us.” At the same time, Congress leader in Lok Sabha, Mallikarjun Kharge, said the proposals to cleanse political system do not specify how the government plans to implement it.

JD(U)’s Sharad Yadav said the government did not touch upon the issue of how much black money has been recovered post demonetisation.

Terming the budget as “contradictory,” CPI(M) general secretary Sitaram Yechury said, “It an example of finance minister joining the Prime Minister and the BJP president to create ‘jumlas’ (phrases used as rhetoric). The budget is a classic example of that.”

Wondering from where the revenue would come for the government at a time when the manufacturing growth is coming down, the BJD said more relief should have been given to the middle income group.

CPI national secretary D Raja said the budget has nothing “spectacular” to offer and does not stoke any hope of retrieval of country’s economy, which he added, is in “bad shape as underscored in the economic survey” released yesterday.

Union minister M Venkaiah Naidu said Congress leaders and other parties said the budget was anti-poor which means that “these parties which were being run on black money, they will become extremely poor,”