Congress Flags Federalism to Take on Centre over Budget 2024-25

While the Congress was justified in leading the anti-budget protests in sync with its main opposition party status with 99/543 Lok Sabha seats, the like-minded too were backing the grand old party. Union budget 2024 gave Congress one more opportunity to raise concerns over the violation of the spirit of federalism.

New Delhi : The Congress is flagging the violation of federalism in budgetary allocations to project itself as the main opposition party in Parliament and boost INDIA bloc unity by rallying the support of regional parties who have issues with the distribution of central finances.

Over the past months, several opposition-ruled states like West Bengal, Tamil Nadu, Telangana, Karnataka, Himachal Pradesh, Jharkhand, Delhi and Punjab have expressed concern over not getting their due share in the distribution of revenues by the central government.

The union budget 2024-25 gave the grand old party yet another opportunity to raise the issue of violation of federalism by the two leaders of the opposition in Parliament, Congress chief Mallikarjun Kharge in the Rajya Sabha and Rahul Gandhi in the Lok Sabha.

Since Tuesday, when the budget was presented, both Kharge and Rahul, supported by the entire INDIA bloc, banked on the federalism principle to articulate their reservations to the annual financial statement saying the ruling NDA deliberately ignored the opposition-ruled states while opening its purses for Andhra Pradesh, ruled by ally TDP, and Bihar, where a JD-U-BJP combine shares power.

“They have given huge funds to Bihar and Andhra Pradesh to survive in power. The allies had made huge demands on them and they obliged to keep the government going. It was easy for them to ignore similar demands from opposition-ruled states like Karnataka, Telangana and Tamil Nadu, which contribute significantly to the central kitty in the form of Goods and Services Tax and other taxes but get little in return. At times states seek additional central funds to mitigate the impact of natural calamities like it happened in Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and Himachal Pradesh. The central government is bound to help the states by putting aside party politics. The states must get their justifiable share. This is the federal principle enshrined in Articles 38 and 39 of the Constitution. They are going against the Constitution for their narrow political ends,” Permanent Invitee to the Congress Working Committee and Karnataka MLC B K Hari Prasad told ETV Bharat.

According to Hari Prasad, while the Congress was justified in leading the anti-budget protests in sync with its main opposition party status with 99 Lok Sabha seats, the like-minded too were backing the grand old party.

“It is natural that the regional parties are also backing the Congress stand which takes care of their interests as well and allows them to become the voice of their people. The issue of federalism has certainly strengthened the INDIA bloc in the Parliament,” said Hari Prasad.

On Wednesday, all the key constituents of the INDIA bloc, NCP-SP, Shiv Sena UBT, DMK, TMC, JMM and AAP alleged in one voice that the budget 2024-25 was “partisan.”

“The people gave 8/17 Lok Sabha seats to the BJP, four more than in 2019. Yet there was nothing for the state. The chief minister had recently sought more central funds from the prime minister but in vain. The central funds must be shared justifiably with the states depending upon their performance and need,” AICC secretary in charge of Telangana Rohit Chaudhary told ETV Bharat.

“There is nothing in the budget for Punjab, Rajasthan, UP and Maharashtra. What kind of revenge is this by the central government? The INDIA bloc is united against the blatant injustice meted out in the union budget. We reject the Centre’s discriminatory and unfair outlook,” Congress Rajya Sabha MP from Maharashtra Imran Pratapgarhi told ETV Bharat.

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