Kharge Criticizes Budget as ‘Copycat’ Strategy to Save Government, Accuses It of Half-Hearted Rewards to Deceive Allies

Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge on Tuesday came down heavily on the NDA government at the Centre saying the Budget presented is a ‘copy cat budget’ and accused the BJP of not even properly copying the grand old party’s nyay patra justice guarantee properly.

In a post on X, formerly Twitter, Kharge, who is also the Leader of Opposition in the Rajya Sabha said, “Modi government’s “copycat budget” could not even copy Congress’ justice guarantee properly.”

Taking a jibe at the government, Kharge said that the Modi government’s budget is distributing half-hearted “rewadis” to “dupe its coalition partners so that the NDA survives”.

“This is not a budget for “progress of the country”, it is a “save Modi government” budget,” Kharge said targeting the government.

He also said that after 10 years, limited announcements have been made for the youth who are bearing the brunt of the slogan of two crore jobs per year, and only superficial talks have been held for farmers, one and a half times MSP and doubling of income – all turned out to be electoral fraud! This government has no intention of increasing rural wages.

The Congress leader also said that there is no revolutionary scheme for Dalits, Adivasis, backward classes, minorities, middle class and rural poor people like the one implemented by Congress-UPA.

“The word “poor” has become just a means of self-branding, there is nothing concrete,” he said, adding, “There is nothing in this budget for women that would enhance their economic capacity and enable them to participate more and more in the workforce.”

He further said that on the contrary, the government is patting its back on the back for rising inflation and “it is robbing people of their hard-earned money and distributing it among its capitalist friends”.

He also said that less money has been spent on agriculture, health, education, public welfare and tribals than the budget allocation because these are not the priorities of the BJP.

“Similarly, Rs 1 lakh crore less has been spent on Capital Expenditure, so how will jobs increase?” Kharge asked.

Taking a pot shot at the goverment, Kharge said, “Urban Development, Rural Development, Infrastructure, Manufacturing, MSME, Investment, EV scheme – only Document, Policy, Vision, Review etc. have been discussed, but no major announcement has been made.”

Discussing the issues grappling Indian Railways, Kharge said, “Railway accidents are happening every day, trains have been stopped, the number of coaches has been reduced, ordinary passengers are troubled, but nothing has been said about the railways in the budget, there is no accountability.”

He also questioned the government on the census and said that nothing has been said about Census and caste census, whereas this is the fifth budget which is being presented without Census.

“This is a shocking and unprecedented failure which is against democracy and the Constitution,” he said.

Targeting Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Kharge said, “On 20 May 2024, i.e. during the elections, Modi ji claimed in an interview that ‘We already have a 100-day action plan…’.

“When the action plan was there two months ago, they should have at least told it in the budget. There is no plan in the budget and BJP is only busy in the action of cheating the public,” Kharge added.

The remarks from the Congress chief came after Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Tuessay presented the first budget of the NDA 3.0 government.