Bihar opposition leaders term Interim budget as 'basket of lies' and 'bundles of Jumlas'

PATNA: RJD chief Lalu Prasad on Friday termed the interim budget as a “basket of lies” and said the Narendra Modi government would not get any benefit by portraying its basket of lies in the “market of Jumlas” because people of this country now not only listen the jumlas but also understand their meanings.


Jailed Lalu, who is currently undergoing treatment at a hospital in Ranchi, gave his reaction on his official Twitter handle. The RJD president also said now people not only give smile by hearing the jumla of Modi government but also laugh out loudly.

Congress national spokesperson and AICC in-charge for Bihar affairs Shaktisinh Gohil criticised the finance minister Piyush Goyal for making a few populist announcements in the Interim budget.

“Since it was an Interim Budget and the Narendra Modi Government’s term is ending in the coming month of May, Goyal should have avoided making any populist announcements,” Gohil said adding Goyal’s announcement of Rs 6,000 per year for farmers with less than two hectares of land was just like the Centre taking assistance of a straw at the time of its sinking. Moreover, this meagre amount of Rs 6,000 would be paid in instalments, he said.

Gohil said, the country’s farmers not going to be influenced by the Centre’s announcements of Rs 6,000 per annum because they clearly understand that Modi Government did nothing for them in the last 4 and a half years. “What was the Centre doing for the farmers in the last four and half year? Farmers understand this is another ‘bundle of Jumla’ of Modi government because its term going to end in the next four months,” he said.

Leader of opposition in Bihar assembly and RJD leader Tejashwi Prasad Yadav said Modi government presented an "unconstitutional" full-fledged budget in the name of Interim budget. “It is totally against the parliamentary tradition and morality. Whatever announcements the finance minister made today, the next government would implement all. It’s an eyewash with people,” Tejashwi said in a statement.

“The decision to provide Rs 500 per month to a farmer is a cruel joke with the country’s farmers. The Budget has no mention of specific schemes for progress of SC/ ST and OBCs,” Tejashwi said.

Reacting over the budget, senior Congress leader and MLC Prem Chandra Mishra said the Interim budget was the last instalment of Jumlas by the Modi government which miserably failed to control the damages caused by its two deadly decisions like demonetization and GST.

Mishra said the union finance minister also failed to explain the nation as to how the centre would treat the incomes of upto Rs 8 lakh per annum as economically backward when it was considering an income above Rs five lakh as taxable.

The RLSP’s national general secretary and chief spokesperson Madhaw Anand said it was not an interim budget. It was a political gimmick, a populist vote of account meant to fool people.

“They have Rs 750 crores to spare on a new cow protection scheme, but don't have even a penny to spare on employment generation initiatives. Just like the Ayushmann Bharat scheme last year, the farmer support scheme is more noise, less substance. Rs 6,000 per year comes down to less than Rs 17 per day and it won't be given in one instalment but in three instalments. Can you sustain yourself on this amount? What if they have more than 5 members in their families? Will the amount of Rs 3 per head provide them any succour? They copied the Raythu Bandhu and Orissa Kalia scheme but left out the most important component. Bihar, where more than 91% farmers are marginal have received almost nothing. The farmers have been duped,” Anand told TOI

The CPI-ML general secretary Dipankar Bhattacharya said the Interim budget presented today was yet another bouquet of populist jumlas aimed at misleading the common people ahead of the impending LS elections. The three big-ticket announcements made today – income support of Rs 6,000 for farmers owning up to 2 hectares of land, old age pension of Rs 3,000 per month for unorganised sector workers and exemption of individual income tax for annual income up to Rs 5 lakh – may sound big but mean very little.