Sisodia turns poet to take dig at Centre's note ban

Delhi Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia today punctuated his budget speech with literary couplets to take a dig at the Centre over the impact of demonetisation decision on society.

"'Ghar mayn padi tankhwah ki gaddi koi kaam naa aayi, bacchon ke gullak toote tab jake ghar meyn sabzi aayi' (The wads of notes from salary became useless, children's savings brought bread home)," Siodia said.

The AAP leader, who also holds the finance portfolio, was severely critical of the Modi government's demonetisation decision and said the cash crunch led to "economic scarcity" and flight of labourers from the city, who were the "worst-hit section".

In his speech, he intermittently used metaphor-ridden couplets to drive home his point.

"'Sab faisle hote nahin sikke ucchal ke, ye zinda kaum ke masle hayn zara dekhbhal ke' (All decisions are not taken with a toss of a coin, beware, these are issues of a vibrant society)," he said.

He said the note ban has hit the national capital's economic growth and "forced" the city government to cut spending on various developmental projects by about Rs 4,100 crore.

The Arvind Kejriwal-led government today presented a Rs 48,000-crore budget for 2017-18 which lays major focus on education, healthcare, transport and social sectors.

The budget also sought to shore up AAP's pro-poor image, and Sisodia cited examples of jhuggi jhopri demolitions to buttress the point.

In a tweet, he used another couplet, saying, "Ek raat ko aasma ka, nizam mere naam kar de, mayn saare tare uthakar garibon meyn baant dun (Give me the sky for a night, I will distribute the stars among the poor)."

(This article has not been edited by DNA's editorial team and is auto-generated from an agency feed.)