Following the Budget being announced by Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, leaders across the political spectrum provided their views.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi described the Budget as “futuristic” with an aim on fulfilling the “dreams” of every section, including the poor, the farmers and the under-privileged while focussing on job creation, transparency, urban rejuvenation and rural development.
“This is a Budget for the future -- for farmers, underprivileged, transparency, urban rejuvenation, rural development, enterprise,” Modi said.
Lauding Jaitley for presenting a “good” budget, he said it will speed up the development of the country, create new employment opportunities, double farmers’ income. It will bring a big change in the financial condition of the villages, Modi said.
It also attempts to raise middle class incomes without any increase in fiscal deficit.
Bharatiya Janata Party president Amit Shah said the Budget is aimed at all-round development with sops for the youth, women, farmers, the poor and middle class and that it will usher in a new era of progress.
He also called historic the announcement to restrict cash donation to Rs 2000 to a political party from one source, saying it will bring transparency and cleanliness in political funding and expressed hope that all parties will welcome it.
“It is a budget aimed at all-round development. On the one hand it is pro-village and pro-farmers and on the other it also provides new possibilities for youths willing to strike out on their own. It has given relief to middle class and will also help realise the dream of the poor and lower middle of owning a house,” he told reporters.
Union Road Transport and Highways Minister Nitin Gadkari on Wednesday said this Budget will bring the Indian economy at the number one position.
“It is a revolutionary budget in the history of India. This budget will bring our economy at the number one position. A lot of innovative ideas are implemented on this budget, it is a revolutionary change and this budget will bring transparency in politics. I believe that this budget will end black money and corruption,” Gadkari said.
Slamming the Budget, Rahul Gandhi said it lacked a clear vision and had nothing for farmers, youths and job creation.
“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,” the Congress vice-president said.
Highlighting the need for employment creation, Rahul said, “The main issue facing India today is creation of jobs. How are you going to solve that problem? On that front there was nothing. No vision, no idea and for farmers absolutely there is nothing.”
“There was nothing in the budget for poor, unemployed and farmers. It is shameful. Farmers are suffering and there is a need for waiving their loans. There was nothing in the budget. These are fundamental issues.”
On Rail Budget, Rahul said, “Modi had promised the bullet train. Where is the bullet train now? Railways’ fundamental problem is safety.”
West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee criticised the Budget as “clueless and missionless” and said it had no roadmap for the country or the future, from a government “that has lost all the credibility”.
The Trinamool Congress supremo wanted to know the figures due to the move, saying taxpayers were still saddled with restrictions on withdrawals.
“A controversial #Budget2017 which is clueless, useless, baseless, missionless and actionless. Heartless. No roadmap for the country or the future from a government that has lost all its credibility,” she wrote on Twitter.
Terming the budget as 'contractionary', a 'complete gimmick' and full of jumlas (rhetoric), the Communist Party of India-Marxist said it would neither help in expanding domestic demand nor increase employment but burden the people as the government aims at ‘substantially’ hiking indirect taxes to raise resources.
"The finance minister has joined the prime minister and the BJP president in producing jumlas. And this budget is a classic example of that," party General Secretary Sitaram Yechury told reporters.
Maintaining that the budget was ‘completely opposite’ to the recommendations of the latest Economic Survey that the government should look inwards and bolster domestic demand, he said, "This is a contractionary budget and not an expansionary one... It's a complete gimmick."
To buttress his views, he reeled out data from the budget document and said revenue expenditure as a percentage of GDP was 13.36 per cent last year, compared to 12.74 in 2017-18.
"This year’s budget includes the revenue of Railways also, which was not there in 2016-17... so compared to the last budget, the revenue has declined substantially," he said.
Janata Dal-United leader Sharad Yadav said the government did not touch upon the issue of how much black money has been recovered post demonetisation.
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.
Biju Janata Dal leader in Lok Sabha Bhartruhari Mahtab wondered from where the revenue would come for 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 smattering of poetry’.
Mahtab, however, said greater thrust on infrastructure and investment in rural development was welcome.
Shiv Sena MP Arvind Sawant said it has 'completely forgotten' the farmers, youth and senior citizens, even as he said that it has provided relief to the salaried class.
"While the Budget has given relief to salary earners, it has completely forgotten farmers, youth, senior citizens and women with no substantial provisions for them," he told.
Even though Jaitley has announced that the skill-training sector will continue to remain high on priority, with rural areas set to get more attention, Sawant claimed that the sector had 'failed miserably' during the present government's tenure.
Questioning Jaitley’s assertion that affordable housing will get infrastructure status, the Sena MP sought to know from the Centre how many affordable houses have been built so far.
"There are announcements on the housing sector for the poor. But, how many houses have actually been built in the last two-and-a-half years? At many places, houses have been built but the people are yet to get possession. At many places, it is also seen that the area of the house grossly differs from the area promised," he said.
Rashtriya Janata Dal president Lalu Yadav denounced the Union Budget as ‘bereft of any substance’ and questioned the rationale of continuing with a railway minister who did not present the budget of the ministry.
He also described Prime Minister Narendra Modi as a ‘twin brother’ of American President Donald Trump, who, he said, was seen ‘taking wayward decisions’ since ascending to the top chair in the United States.
“The Union Budget presented today is bereft of any substance for any section of the society,” he told reporters.
“The minister in his Budget speech did not make any reference as to how many unemployed youths it gave jobs to,” the RJD chief said.
He was particularly harsh on the merging of Railway Budget with the General Budget.
“They have demolished the tradition of presentation of separate Rail Budget since Independence... what is the rationale of continuing with a railway minister when he cannot present the budget of his ministry,” Lalu, who served as railway minister during United Progressive Alliance I government, said.
The RJD chief also questioned the NDA government’s wisdom of going with presentation of the Budget despite the death of former minister and MP E Ahamed.
