'Zero Sum', 'most capitalist' – Opposition tears into Budget

While some lamented the cuts, especially on subsidies, other pointed to the lack of incentives to poorer sections of society

The Opposition on Tuesday tore into the Narendra Modi government's latest Budget, calling it "zero sum", "anti-people", "the most capitalist", "PM (Does Not) Care" and "bull-headed obduracy," among other things, alleging that there is nothing for the poor and the troubled while serving the interests of the rich.

Political parties from the Congress to the Left were united in criticising the government for slashing the subsidy bill, not providing cash assistance to the poor, a decrease in MGNREGA allocation and cut in schemes for farmers.

Former Congress president Rahul Gandhi tweeted, "Modi government’s Zero Sum Budget! Nothing for - salaried class, middle class, the poor and deprived, youth, farmers, MSMEs."

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West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee said the Budget has nothing for common people, who were crushed by unemployment and inflation. "Government is lost in big words signifying nothing - A Pegasus spin budget," she said.

Describing it as an "anti-people" budget, CPI(M) General Secretary Sitaram Yechury said it was a "cruel assault" on people's livelihoods, citing the cut of subsidies on food, fertiliser and petroleum as "human suffering exponentially grew" during the last two years. "Why are those who amassed super profits during the pandemic, while joblessness, poverty and hunger have grown, not being taxed more?" he asked.

Former Finance Minister P Chidambaram called it the "most capitalist" budget. "By any standard, today's Budget speech was the most capitalist speech ever read by a Finance Minister. The FM has mastered the jargon of capitalist economics. Read her speech again: count the number of times she used the words digital, portal, IT-based, paperless, database, ecosystem, global, Atma-Nirbhar. The word ‘poor’ occurs twice in paragraph 6, and we thank the FM for remembering that there are poor people in this country," he said.

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Chidambaram also spoke about the "humongous 27 per cent" cut in subsidies and said it was the "most unkindest cut". He said, "The Finance Minister may have forgotten the poor but the poor have long memories."

CPI General Secretary D Raja said the priority should have been to generate more and more jobs but there was no plan in the Budget to generate more employment.

Referring to the decrease in customs duty for diamonds, Trinamool's Derek O'Brien said, "Diamonds are this government’s best friend. For the rest— farmers, middle class, daily earners, unemployed— this is a PM (Does Not) Care."

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