Countering the Opposition’s charges that the Union Budget had ignored the interests of many States and reduced allocations for social sectors like health, education, and agriculture, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Tuesday indirectly hit out at the Opposition parties for spreading negativity about businesses and scaring off investors.
Responding to the debate in the Lok Sabha on the Union Budget and the Budget for the Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir for 2024-25, that lasted over 27 hours, Ms. Sitharaman asserted that the Opposition members’ campaign, which was arguing that States that do not find a mention in the Budget speech will not get any resources, was misleading.
The two core elements of the Union Budget were social and geographical inclusivity through equitable development for all the regions in our country, she underlined, adding that this is “a whole of nation” approach. She also recounted the times States found a mention in Budgets presented during the UPA regime.
“In 2004-05, 17 States were not mentioned in the speech. I would like to ask the UPA members of that time, did money not go to those States? Did they stop it?... We are being blamed that just two States were named and others got nothing,” the Minister noted, before pointing to Budget outlays for projects across States such as Maharashtra, Telangana, West Bengal and Jharkhand.
Taking on what she called was a conspiracy to attack India’s social fabric, parliamentary traditions, economy and the armed forces, Ms. Sitharaman warned that the journey to make India a developed nation will become more difficult if there is instability and anarchy.
“There is a conspiracy to send a message to the entire world that India is not safe for investors. Rumours are being spread that Indian institutions cannot guarantee security to foreign investments, which is really a sad situation. Strategic, economic and political instability…some forces are working to create this kind of an image of India and we should all fight together, that this kind of instability building people to be taught a lesson,” she said.
“This is a huge challenge for us. After Independence, our Constitution has put in place several arrangements to keep the society united but today through a conspiracy, the fault lines of our society are being exposed, mistrust is being created against each other in the society through fallacy, lies and deceit,” she said.
“Efforts are being made to create such a situation that even a spark will lead to a lot of conflict...efforts are being made to divide the army and the soldiers. The strength of the army is its discipline and unity and it is being challenged. Whatever is happening today regarding Agniveer is a part of this conspiracy, I’m afraid to say,” she argued.
Stressing that even the economy is under attack from such forces, Ms. Sitharaman said that Entrepreneurship is being made a villain. “Hard-working entrepreneurs are building this country. The conspiracy is to end India’s entrepreneurship culture, even before it fully blooms and thereby, hitting at its backbone, which is entrepreneurship…small and medium units and enterprises building India,” she asserted.
Budget 2024-25, she said, tries to bring in a balance among many objectives such as growth, employment, welfare spending, capex and fiscal consolidation, and has not reduced allocations for any social sector as suggested by many members of Parliament during the debate.
