FM's speech 'most capitalist', budget 'obdurate and callous': P Chidambaram

Senior Congress leader and former Finance Minister P Chidambaram launched a scathing attack on Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman by calling her Budget Speech the "most capitalist" speech. Reacting sharply, Chidambaram alleged that the budget has "nothing" to address the grave challenges of unemployment, loss of MSMEs during pandemic years, malnutrition, and others.

New Delhi: Senior Congress leader and former Finance Minister P Chidambaram launched a scathing attack on Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman by calling her Budget Speech the "most capitalist" speech. Reacting sharply, Chidambaram alleged that the budget has "nothing" to address the grave challenges of unemployment, loss of MSMEs during pandemic years, malnutrition, and others.

While addressing a press conference, Chidambaram said, "Today’s budget speech was the most capitalist speech ever read by a Finance Minister. The FM has mastered the jargon of capitalist economics. The word 'poor' occurs twice in paragraph 6, and we thank the FM for remembering that there are poor people in this country."

However, he further asserted that Parliament may vote this Budget because the ruling party has a brute majority in the Lok Sabha, but the people will reject this "capitalist" Budget. Calling the Union Budget "Obdurate and Callous", the senior Congress leader said, "The government behaves and acts as though it is on the right path and has delivered on the issues that matter to the common people. This is false. This is also bull-headed obduracy. This also reflects the government’s contemptuous disregard of the burdens and sufferings of the people."

Chidambaram said he was astonished by the fact that Finance Minister was outlining the plan for the next 25 years and termed it as 'Amrit Kaal'. He adds that the government seems to believe that the people living in the present can be asked to wait patiently until the 'Amrit Kaal' dawns. Slamming the 'Amrit Kaal' statement, he adds, "This is nothing but mocking the people of India, especially the poor and the deprived."

Launching an attack on the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party in view of the upcoming Assembly elections, Chidambaram said, "They are simply going into elections on the basis they can divide Indian society into Hindus and non-Hindus and capture the bulk of the Hindu votes instead on the record of performance, or assurances or reassurances given to the people.

He further said that it is simply a cold, clever calculation that religion and Hindutva will propel them back to power. Meanwhile, Congress spokesperson Randeep Singh Surjewala sought an apology from the Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman for her remark on Rahul Gandhi where she called him an "MP who ran away from UP". These remarks came after Congress leader Rahul Gandhi called the Union Budget 'Zer0 Sum Budget' in his tweet.