Indian opposition protests against ‘discriminatory’ financial budget

The Narendra Modi-led government has been accused of unfairly allocating funding to states, favoring those ruled by allies

India’s opposition has started protesting against the Narendra Modi-led government’s federal budget, tabled in the Parliament a day earlier, over alleged “discrimination” against opposition-ruled states.

The opposition has alleged that the document favors states ruled by Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and its allies in the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) who were instrumental in forming the government last month, after the BJP failed to secure a parliamentary majority on its own.

The NDA secured 293 seats in the 543-member lower house of parliament (Lok Sabha) during the recently concluded election. The opposition INDIA bloc, however, which is spearheaded by the Indian National Congress, won over 200 seats, defying expectations.

Rahul Gandhi of the Congress party termed the budget a “kursi bacho” (saving the seat of power) budget. Posting on X (formerly Twitter), he claimed that Modi’s party had formulated the budget to “appease allies” in the coalition at the cost of other states. The politician has also accused Modi’s party of plagiarizing Congress’ manifesto and previous budgets.

❗Give Us Our Fair Share! INDIA Bloc On #Budget2024

Gathering in protest at what they call an unbalanced allocation of funding to states, the opposition made their point outside Parliament House on Wednesday morning. pic.twitter.com/calJrzz3RG

— RT_India (@RT_India_news) July 24, 2024

Notably, the new budget, presented by Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Wednesday, outlines large financial allocations to two states, Bihar and Andhra Pradesh, ruled by the Janata Dal United (JDU) party and the Telugu Desam Party (TDP), Modi’s key allies in the NDA bloc.

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The finance minister announced a host of monetary aid and infrastructure development projects for both states to the tune of over 410 billion rupees ($5 billion). Andhra Pradesh will receive 150 billion rupees to spend on building its new capital, Amravati – a project that the state’s Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu has been pushing for for years, as RT reported recently. For Bihar, the budget outlines the development of expressways and a power plant.

Overall, the budget focuses on “employment, skilling, small businesses, and the middle class,” Sittharaman noted. The budget places a strong emphasis on welfare schemes, which aim to alleviate rural distress and support the rural economy.

In an effort to tackle high youth unemployment, the government has announced five new schemes with an investment outlay of 2 trillion rupees ($24 billion). These, according to the document, will “facilitate employment, skilling and other opportunities” for 41 million people over a five-year period.

Notably, the need to create jobs for the young population was one of the main promises of India’s opposition Congress Party in its election manifesto during recently concluded general elections.

READ MORE: New Delhi projects economic growth of up to 7%

In another move to protest against the budget, the Congress party on Tuesday announced that the chief ministers of the states where the party has secured a majority – including Karnataka, Telangana, and Himachal Pradesh – will not attend a crucial meeting of the government think tank NITI Aayog’s council, which had been set to be chaired by Modi later this week.

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