Opposition blasts Modi govt’s budget 2022: ‘Nothing for middle class’

• Shubham
• 01 February, 2022

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By: Shubham Ghosh

THE Indian National Congress on Tuesday (1) slammed the central budget presented by Indian finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman calling it “insipid” and “uninspiring” lacking ideas or proposals to boost consumption and provide relief to the poor, salaried class, middle class or the agricultural community.

Reacting to the budget initially, the grand-old party of India said the country’s salaried and the middle classes are reeling under the impact of coronavirus pandemic, pay cuts and “back breaking” inflation and were hoping for relief but the finance minister and prime minister Narendra Modi disappointed them.
“The finance minister and the prime minister have again deeply disappointed them in direct tax measures. This is a betrayal of India’s salaried class and the middle class,” Randeep Surjewala, head of the Congress’s communication department, said.

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He also said that the truth of the budget presented on Tuesday was that “it was a nothing budget”.

“The pockets of the poor, salaried class, middle class, farmers had been empty, but there is nothing for them in the budget. The hopes of the youth are broken but there is nothing for them either. And there is nothing to boost consumption and promote small businesses,” he said.

Veteran Congress parliamentarian Manish Tewari called the Bharatiya Janata Party-led government’s budget “insipid, unimaginative, uninspiring, unrealistic and unimplementable.”

Former Congress president Rahul Gandhi called the budget as a “Zer0 Sum Budget!”

In a tweet, he said, “M0di G0vernment’s Zer0 Sum Budget! Nothing for – Salaried class – Middle class – The poor & deprived – Youth – Farmers – MSMEs.”

M0di G0vernment’s Zer0 Sum Budget!

Nothing for
– Salaried class
– Middle class
– The poor & deprived
– Youth
– Farmers
– MSMEs

— Rahul Gandhi (@RahulGandhi) February 1, 2022

‘Pegasus Spin Budget’

Mamata Banerjee, the chief minister of the eastern Indian state of West Bengal and a major critic of Modi, also lashed out at the budget saying it had little to offer to the common man. She also called the budget “A PEGASUS SPIN BUDGET”, taking a dig at the Modi government over the ongoing Pegasus spyware controversy.

The Trinamool Congress supremo tweeted,“BUDGET HAS ZERO FOR COMMON PEOPLE, WHO ARE GETTING CRUSHED BY UNEMPLOYMENT & INFLATION. GOVT IS LOST IN BIG WORDS SIGNIFYING NOTHING – A PEGASUS SPIN BUDGET”

BUDGET HAS ZERO FOR COMMON PEOPLE, WHO ARE GETTING CRUSHED BY UNEMPLOYMENT & INFLATION. GOVT IS LOST IN BIG WORDS SIGNIFYING NOTHING – A PEGASUS SPIN BUDGET

— Mamata Banerjee (@MamataOfficial) February 1, 2022

Derek O’Brien, another top Trinamool leader and a parliamentarian, said, “Diamonds are this government’s best friend. For the rest— farmers, middle class, daily earners, unemployed— this is a PM (Does Not) Care Budget.”

The Left was also not happy with the budget. Sitaram Yechury, the general secretary of India’s Communist Party (Marxist), asked who will benefit from the budget.

“The richest 10% Indians own 75% of the country’s wealth. Bottom 60% own less than 5%. Why are those who amassed super profits during the pandemic, while joblessness, poverty and hunger have grown, not being taxed more?” he asked.