NEW DELHI: Former finance minister and senior Congress leader P Chidambaram launched a sharp attack on Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman’s Budget speech, mocking several of its claims during the Union Budget debate in the Rajya Sabha on Monday.
When the House resumed at 2 pm, the Chairman permitted Chidambaram to initiate the debate from the Opposition benches. The veteran leader began by listing what he termed “major omissions” in the FM’s speech and criticised the overall approach of the Budget.
Dubbing it “parsimonious”, he remarked, “This Budget is cautious, parsimonious, and forgetful of the past year. This is a forgettable budget. Yes, a forgettable budget, prepared by a FM who has forgotten the promises made in this House last year”.
During his speech, Sitharaman entered the House and listened attentively as he pointed out what he said were missing allocations for several announced schemes. Chidambaram accused the government of cutting capital expenditure.
Drawing attention to reductions across sectors, he claimed that allocations for agriculture and rural development had been slashed by Rs 60,000 crore. He added that spending on rural roads, housing and grants to states had also been sharply reduced, prompting Opposition MPs to raise slogans of ‘shame shame’.
Focusing on Agriculture Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan and Jal Jeevan Minister C R Patil, Chidambaram questioned what the two ministers were doing when their own ministries had faced cuts in budgetary allocations. He further stated that defence spending was at a historic low of 1.6% of GDP and allocations for science, urban development and social welfare had also declined.