Sitharaman slams Rahul, says Congress creating fake narratives

In her reply to the discussion on general budget 2021-22 in the Lok Sabha, she chose to give point by point rebuttal to the charges levelled by Congress leader Rahul Gandhi in the House on Thursday. ``What role does he want to play? He is constantly insulting constitutionally elected heads of institutions be it the Speaker or former Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh,'' she said charging Mr Gandhi of demeaning India, insulting institutions and joining breaking India fringe groups. 

Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Defence Minister Rajnath Singh were present in the House as Ms. Sitharaman's took a dig against Congress in response to Mr Gandhi's charge that the Modi government was encouraging crony-capitalism and the country was ruled by four people.

"We don't give lands to damaads (son-in-laws), our cronies are common people who have reposed faith in Prime Minister Modi,'' she said amid thumping of desks by members of treasury benches.

Ahead of Nirmala Sitharaman's reply to the discussion on Union Budget, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) had issued a whip to its members in the Lok Sabha asking them to remain present in the House on Saturday.

In her more than an hour long reply, the Finance Minister quoted figures from the budget present in the House on February 1 to rebut questions raised on reduced allocation for minority affairs, SC and ST. "These allocations have not been reduced. The allocation for minority affairs is Rs. 4,811 crores in 2021-22 which is an 8.6 per cent increase for the ministry. higher than actual expenditure,'' she said.

Overall allocation provided for welfare of SCs has gone up from Rs. 83,257 crore in 2020-21, compared to Rs. 1,26,259 crore in 2021-22. Overall allocation provided for welfare of STs have also shown an increase from Rs. 53,653 crore from 2020-21 to Rs. 79,942 crore in 2021-22, she told the House.

The Finance Minister said the government will allocate more funds for rural job scheme MGNREGA for 2021-22 if needed, as against Budget estimate of Rs. 73,000 crore.

On defence allocation, she said it has gone up under three heads -- revenue, capital and pension. "It is Rs. 2,09,319 crore under revenue, Rs. 1,13,734 crore under capital and Rs 1,33,825 crore under pension,'' she said.

Targeting the Congress, the Finance Minister said: "PM SVANidhi Yojana does not go to cronies, Damads (son-in-laws) get land in states which are governed by some parties - Rajasthan, Haryana once upon a time.''

"Where are the cronies? They are hiding probably in the shadow of that party which has been rejected by the people. The shadows who were invited to even develop a port, They invited, no open tender, no global tenders,'' she said.

"Who are cronies? Our cronies are the common 'janta' of this country,'' she told the House.

Ms Sitharaman said that Prime Minister Modi is working for the Dalits, backward and poor people. "People believe and have faith in the prime minister,'' she said.

Stating that the government has a holistic approach to health, she said that it means addressing preventing health, it is addressing curative health, it is also addressing well-being. "Otherwise, you are not going to get holistic health-related governance,'' she said.

Ms Sitharaman said that BJP has constantly believed in India and respected Indian entrepreneurial skills and managerial skills. "We did not borrow something from somewhere and gave a hybrid,'' she told the House.

"This budget draws from the experience of the Prime Minser when he was chief minsiter on the ground in Gujarat, seen so many revivials happening at a time when the license quota raj was given a go-by post-1991 and then based on that experience, commitment to reform was blended into this budget,'' she said.

The Finance Minister asserted that a challenging situation like pandemic did not deter the government from taking up reforms that are necessary for sustaining long term growth for the country.