FM Sitharaman slams Oppn’s ‘misleading campaign’ on Budget 2024, cites UPA-era figures

New Delhi : Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Tuesday reiterated her defence of the Union Budget 2024-2025 and said that the government didn’t ‘discriminate’ between BJP and non-BJP states, as claimed by the Opposition parties.

She also lashed out at the Opposition over a ‘motivated and misleading’ campaign and said that not naming any state didn’t mean that it was deprived of its right and revenue.

FM Sitharaman, who presented her seventh consecutive Budget this year, also sought to turn the tables on the Congress by recalling the financial documents of UPA eras, which didn’t mention all the states.

“In 2004-05, the Budget didn’t name 17 states, in 2005-06, there was no mention of 18 states, in 2006-07, 13 states were missed out, in 2009-10, a whopping number of 26 states were left out while the 2012-13 budget didn’t mention 13 states,” the FM pointed out.

“Does that mean no money was allotted to these states? Does that mean that these states were bereft of funds?” she asked.

Flagging statements of Opposition leaders on cooperative federalism, she said that a deliberate attempt was made to delude and mislead the public at large.

A misleading campaign is being run by the Opposition parties and as part of this gameplan, they are spreading canards and fake information. She added that they are trying to create fear in people’s minds by distorting the facts.

The Finance Minister also shared details of various allocations and outlays in the current Budget for the states, which were not named in her speech.

“Talking about Railway projects alone, the one in Bihar, Bengal and Jharkhand has been allocated Rs 12,000 crore while the one in Telangana and Andhra Pradesh will entail a cost of Rs 770 crore,” FM said, citing random figures.

“In terms of road highway projects, Kerala has been allocated Rs 9,600 crores while Jammu and Kashmir, Punjab, Haryana and Delhi together have been sanctioned Rs 18, 274 crores,” she added.

She further lambasted the Congress-led Opposition for keeping mum on years of ‘malpractice’ (of not naming states in the Budget) and said that an unnecessary controversy has been created because a chaiwala turned Prime Minister is running an efficient administration.

Notably, the INDIA bloc had raised questions over Budgetary allocations and also accused the Modi government of favouring two states Bihar and Andhra Pradesh, ruled by BJP and its allies. Protesting against the Budget 2024, they called it an “assault on the sanctity of the federal structure of India.”