A day after the presentation of Union Budget 2024, INDIA bloc member parties staged a protest in Parliament and outside over "discrimination" against the opposition-ruled states in the Union Budget. Several Opposition MPs were seen taking part in the Congress-led protest outside parliament on Wednesday.
"There was injustice in the Budget. We are fighting to get justice," said Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge as he arrived in Parliament.
Commenting on the budget, Shiv Sena (UBT) MP Sanjay Raut said, "Everyone knows that this is 'Kursi Bachao' Budget. There was a time when the traders of Gujarat used to give extortion money to the East India Company...I think that the same traders have given the extortion money to Bihar's Nitish Kumar and Andhra Pradesh's Chandrababu Naidu to protect their chair."
Further delineating the Centre's discriminatory approach towards the Oppostion-led states, Congress leader Manickam Tagore said, "It's a discriminatory Budget. It's unfair for the states that are suffering. They are not able to get their share. Tamil Nadu had asked for flood relief, it was not given. There was no project for Telangana. Flood was there in Himachal, no relief was given. It is a discriminatory Budget towards the states not ruled by the BJP. It's a 'Kursi-bachao Budget'. It is just to save their govt. Nothing is there. NRGS funds, education funds, education loan have been cut down. Middle-class is going to suffer. This govt betrayed everybody."
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On Tuesday, the decision to stage a protest was taken at a meeting of floor leaders of INDIA bloc parties at the New Delhi residence of Congress supremo and Leader of Opposition in the Rajya Sabha Mallikarjun Kharge. The leaders have also decided to skip the NITI Aayog meeting scheduled for July 27.
According to PTI, the meeting at Kharge's residence was attended by Leader of the Opposition at Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi, Congress general secretaries K C Venugopal and Jairam Ramesh, Congress' deputy leader in Rajya Sabha Pramod Tiwari, Congress' deputy leader in Lok Sabha Gaurav Gogoi, NCP (SCP) chief Sharad Pawar, Shiv Sena (UBT) leader Sanjay Raut, TMC leaders Derek O'Brien and Kalyan Banerjee, DMK's T R Baalu, JMM's Mahua Maji, AAP's Raghav Chadha and Sanjay Singh, and CPI(M)'s John Brittas, among others.
Commenting on the Budget, Congress General Secretary KC Venugopal said, "The concept of a budget has already been destroyed by this year's Union Budget. They have completely discriminated against most of the states. So general sentiment of the INDIA bloc meeting was we have to protest against this."
Later, in a post on X, Venugopal said, "The Union Budget presented today was extremely discriminatory and dangerous, which completely goes against the principles of federalism and fairness that the Union Government must follow."
"This government’s attitude is completely antithetical to Constitutional principles. We will not participate in an event that is solely designed to hide the true, discriminatory colours of this regime," he said.
Congress MP Pramod Tiwari alleged that the budget had "blacked out" states where there are non-BJP governments.
"We will hold a protest tomorrow in the Parliament regarding this. We will raise our voice inside Parliament and outside also...This is not the budget of the BJP, it is the budget of the whole country, but they have presented it as if it is BJP's budget...This budget is againt the federal structure of the country," he alleged.
