New Delhi,
Congress leader Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury on Thursday slammed the Union Budget, terming it as nothing but “hot air” and a “cruel joke” on the poor and marginalised, farmers and labourers. Speaking on the general debate on the Union Budget in the Lok Sabha, Chowdhury said that now the poor people, including farmers and labourers, were saying they were fed up with PM Narendra Modi's promise of “achche din” and wanted their old bad days back.
“Modi ji showed them dream of achche din, and now they are saying Modiji please bring our old bure (bad) din,” Chowdhury said, with Congress leader Sonia Gandhi seated next to him. He said Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman had used “confusing words” in the budget to “confuse the the common man” regarding the budget. He said that Congress leader Rahul Gandhi had depicted the budget as a “Zero Budget” and the Finance Minister “taunted him by saying he was speaking in UP-type bhashan”. Chowdhury said that Rahul Gandhi said there should have been more schemes for the people and country, and he spoke of two India's — of the haves and haves not.
He also criticised PM Modi for referring to former PM Jawaharlal Nehru on socialism, and said that if the Modi government does not understand the concept then it does not mean that they insult the former PM in the parliament. Chowdhury said the rich have become richer in the last seven years, and added that the Congress has nothing against billionaires, but are against crony capitalism. Accusing the Modi government of peddling lies, he sang a line from a Hindi film song, "Sajan re jhoot mat bolo, khuda ke pas jana hai" (Don't lie, you will have to answer to God).
Chowdhury said that 60 lakh MSMEs had been shut down due to distress, and in the past seven years of the Modi government, instead of providing 14 crore jobs it had seen 12.20 crore jobs lost. He said unemployment is at 28 percent and asked why the government had not provided a roadmap for manufacturing. “Only Modi ji knows about the jumla (of boosting manufacturing) he is telling,” he added. On the Modi government's promise of doubling farmers's income, he said that 700 farmers had died during the farmers' protest, and the government was forced to take back the three “black” farm laws. According to Chowdhury, after seven years, a farmer on average earns Rs 27 a day, and is burdened with Rs 74,000 average debt.
According to Chowdhury, 29 farmers die by suicide in a day under the present regime. “That is why farmers say give us back the old days, as the situation has become worse now.” He then elaborated on the schemes brought out by the UPA government, like Right to Food, MGNREGA, the RTI act. Sonia Gandhi, seated next to him, in a low voice prodded him to add more schemes, like Right to Health, Right to Education, Right to Forest. In a jibe at the PM for the official plane and car, he said “Modiji calls himself the biggest sevak, and he has got a plane for himself at Rs 4,500 crore, and spent Rs 16 crore on his car.”
He also said the Modi government has not done anything to implement the One Rank One Pension scheme for the defence forces, or in bringing back black money. He said the public sector banks had been "looted" to the tune of Rs 5 lakh, 35 thousand crore by the absconding businessmen, including Mehul Choksi, Nirav Modi and Vijay Mallya. The last seven years has seen the banking industry in dire straits, with NPAs of public sector banks growing four times, he added. He said between 2007-14, the NPAs of public sector banks stood at Rs 5 lakh crore, which has grown to Rs 21 lakh 60 thousand crore in the past seven years. He alleged that the Modi government has written off 25 percent of NPAs of public sector banks.
He questioned how the railways was going to roll out 400 Vande Bharat trains in the next three years as cited in the Budget, as the three railway factories do not have the capacity to manufacture seven such trains a week in order to meet the target. Criticising the privatisation of Air India, he said it effectively reverses the liberalisation policy, and that divestment was being done without market considerations, and that the competitive telecom sector was being killed.