Soon after the Budget was announced, where Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman proposed to give Rs 15,000 crore to Andhra Pradesh for the development of its capital city Amaravati and allocated over Rs 60,000 crore for various projects in Bihar, the Opposition political parties rushed to criticise the Budget and also called it to be ‘discriminatory’.
The Modi government did not agree to big demands like giving special status to Bihar, but it made announcements to keep its allies happy. Congress leader Rahul Gandhi criticised the government for trying to please its NDA allies through the Budget. He called Modi’s first Budget of his third term a “Kursi Bachao” Budget. Gandhi accused the government of making empty promises to allies while neglecting other states.
However, Sitharaman defended it in the parliament, and in an interview to ToI she highlighted the Budget is more about continuity and commitment over political gamesmanship.
“This budget has every continuity from the interim budget, nothing has been dropped, everything has continued, though newer things have been added. When you say it is political, you refer to projects we have taken up for Bihar and Andhra Pradesh. But we did that for a reason,” Sitharaman told ToI. She said that the allocations are based on long-standing commitments, not just recent election results.A significant portion of the budget is allocated to Andhra Pradesh for projects like the Polavaram irrigation project and state development, as per the Andhra Pradesh Reorganisation Act. “The AP Reorganisation Act must be honoured. We have been doing it since 2014,” she said.
Sitharaman said that some projects, such as Polavaram, had faced delays but has now been approved as a national project and will receive funding. She also mentioned that Andhra Pradesh, being the only state without a capital, will be provided with financial support. According to Sitharaman, these additions are not new initiatives but longstanding commitments that need to be addressed after 10 years of delay.
“In Bihar’s case, can anyone deny the devastation that happens because of Kosi flooding?,” Sitharaman said.
The budget includes measures to build barrages to reduce flooding, addressing long-standing issues rather than seeking electoral benefits, the finance minister said.
While India’s budget took several measures to ramp up employment, Sitharaman said the focus on jobs was not political and shows the government’s consistent efforts to address unemployment in a country where the job crisis continues to be a political hot button.
When asked if the interim budget could have been more politically advantageous, Sitharaman said she can’t assess that because she sees the budget as a reflection of the government’s work,. The interim budget, according to her, was a practical document to ensure government operations continued smoothly and took care of expenditure until the new administration took over.
The demand for special status by states like Bihar, Andhra Pradesh, and Odisha is another contentious issue. Sitharaman mentioned past assessments by the 14th Finance Commission and the Raghuram Rajan committee, which found such categorisation unsustainable. “There’s nothing more I can add to that,” she said.
Political slugfests in India have also revolved around Modi criticising the opposition parties doling out ‘revdis, or freebies, in the name of welfare measures to woo voters.
Sitharaman said that while many parties understand the long-term unsustainability of such measures, there is often a lack of political honesty in acknowledging this.
“In a public position, who is answerable for taxpayers, you have to be clear that collecting tax from someone and paying it to somebody else, however deserving that person may be, should be sustainable,” Sitharaman said, adding there has to be a balance between political pragmatism and fiscal responsibility.
The opposition’s most pointed criticism is the alleged lack of funds for certain states. Sitharaman dismisses these claims as “100% blatant misinformation,” accusing the opposition, especially Congress, of spreading misleading narratives.
“The opposition, particularly Congress, is brazenly pushing this methodology of building a narrative which is not backed by facts, or backed by partial facts. They hide what has happened during their govts…This brazen method of building a false narrative, repeating it and restating it with the hope that it will stick has been tried in the Lok Sabha elections. They are trying it even now,” Sitharaman said.