Clueless, actionless, heartless: Mamata leads Oppn offensive

NEW DELHI: Opposition on Wednesday denounced the Union Budget with Rahul Gandhi saying it lacked a clear vision and had nothing for farmers, youths and job creation while Mamata Banerjee dubbed it as “clueless, useless and heartless” and questioned why no data on demonetisation was given.

Terming the budget as “contractionary” and a “complete gimmick”, the Left parties alleged that the figures given by the Finance Minister do not match the reality.

The opposition parties also accused the government of bringing the budget proposals keeping in mind the Assembly polls in five states and indulging in jugglery of words and numbers.

However, the government’s proposal to cleanse political funding by bringing in transparency did find favour with most of them. “We were expecting fireworks, instead it was a damp squib.

It is just ‘sher-o-shayari’ in the budget. There is nothing for farmers and youth and nothing for job creation. There is no clear vision, no idea,” Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi said soon after Finance Minister Arun Jaitley presented the Budget.

West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, whose Trinamool Congress boycotted the first two days of the Budget session to protest against demonetisation, claimed the budget has no road map and is full of hollow words.

“A controversial #Budget2017 which is clueless, useless, baseless, mission less and actionless. Heartless. No roadmap for the country or the future from a government that has lost all its credibility,” Banerjee said in a tweet.

“Tax payers still have restrictions on withdrawals. Remove all restrictions immediately. And where are the figures for #Demonetisation? Misleading. Full of jugglery of numbers and hollow words which mean nothing,” she said.

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

Rahul was appreciative of proposals on political funding, saying “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.

“They have promised all these things keeping polls in five states in mind. They have not said anything for farmers, youth, women. They have accepted that GDP growth has gone down,” Kharge said. On Rail Budget, Rahul said, “Modi had promised the bullet train. Where is the bullet train now? Railways’ fundamental problem is safety.”

CPI(M) General Secretary Sitaram Yechury termed the budget as “contractionary”.

“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.

“It won’t boost employment or generate demand. The idea of infrastructure development is a farce.” Yechury said.

BJD leader in Lok Sabha Bhartruhari Mahtab wondered from where the revenue would come from the government at a time when the manufacturing growth is coming down.

He, as also his party colleague Tathagata Satpathy, said more relief should have been given to the middle-income group.

Mahtab said that with the implementation of Seventh Pay Commission recommendations, it had become essential to give benefit to salaried and fixed income groups.

Satpathy said that the FM handled the “demon” part of demonetisation through “smooth language and a smattering of poetry”. Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar said: “The budget has disappointed the people. There is nothing that could speed up growth and development in the country. It is not going to help the common people, farmers and the youths,”

“Bihar got nothing new in the budget.”

“Why has Finance Minister Arun Jaitley in his budget speech in parliament not given any information about how much black money returned following demonetisatiion and the benefits of demonetisation.”