New Delhi: The former Finance Minister P Chidambaram took a jibe on the Government after the budget by giving an abysmal rating to the Union Budget 2020-21.
When asked about the rating he wants to give to the Union Budget out of 10, he replied, '1' or a '0'. You can take either of these numbers for the Union Budget. I have no issue."
The Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman presented the first budget of second innings of Modi government, on Saturday, in which she gave record-long 160 minutes speech in the Parliament.
Commenting over her budget speech, the former Finance Minister P Chidambaram said, "We have just had the longest budget speech delivered by Finance Minister in recent years it lasted all of 160 minutes. If therefore, all of you are exhausted, as I am, I would not blame you. I am at a loss to understand what was the message intended to be conveyed by Budget 2020-21."
Accusing the government of denying the economic challenges of our country, Chidambaram said, "The government is in complete denial that the economy faces a grave macroeconomic challenge and the growth rate has declined in 6 successive quarters.
There is nothing in this budget that leads us to believe that the growth will revive in 2020-21. The claim of 6 to 6.5% growth next year is astonishing and even irresponsible."
He further added, "It's a laundry list of old programmes, even most loyal BJP supporters cannot latch on to any idea in the Budget speech."
Slamming the government for not acknowledging the two challenges of Indian Economy which is currently "demand constrained" and "investment starved", Chidambaram claimed that the economy will not turn around and there will be no relief to the millions of poor and middle class.
"The FM has failed miserably on marksmanship. She has outrightly rejected every reform idea contained in the Economic Survey. Did the FM even read the Economic Survey?" asked Chidambaram.
