PM Modi calls budget critics 'professional pessimists'

Prime minister Narendra Modi on Saturday slammed those criticising the union budget and termed them as ''professional pessimists'', who turned every solution into problems even as he expressed confidence that the country would achieve its goal to become a five trillion dollar economy in the near future.

Addressing around five thousand BJP workers in his Lok Sabha constituency of Varanasi, Modi highlighted the various provisions of the budget and said that it would usher in all-round development.

''If you approach someone with a problem then he will offer you a solution but there are some, who will turn the solutions into problems...such people may question our determination to make us a five trillion dollar economy....you may call them professional pessimists,'' he said.

The prime minister went on to explain the significance of the size of the economy and likened it a cake to put across his views on the same.

''There is a saying in English that the size of the cake matters....it means the bigger is the size of the cake, the more the share of the same for the people....this is why we have set the goal of becoming a five trillion dollar economy,'' he remarked.

Modi referred to the improvement in the country's ranking in 'ease of doing business' and said that the government had shown that it could achieve the goals.

Stating that the union government's focus was the development of infrastructure in the country, the prime minister said that 1.25 lakh kilometres of road would be constructed in the rural areas in the next few years.

He also referred to the 'Swachchata' campaign and said that it had helped boost tourism in the country in a big way.