Budget 2019: Cong leaders criticise budget, but Manmohan Singh admits it will 'affect polls’
Congress leaders reacted along expected lines.
The Congress on Friday alleged that the government presented a full-fledged budget instead of an interim one, and said it was not a vote on account, but an "account for votes".
Senior Congress leader P Chidambaram, addressing a press conference after the government presented the interim budget, said Finance Minister Piyush Goyal tested patience by giving the "longest" interim budget speech in recent memory.
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Yet, former PM Manmohan Singh admitted that the SOPs for middle class and farmers would affect polls.
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Manmohan Singh called it an 'election budget'. He, however, admitted that the concessions to the middle class and farmers would have 'implications'.
He said: “In these circumstances of the case, concessions to farmers and concessions to middle class will obviously have implications in the election."
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On the other hand, Congress president Rahul Gandhi wrote: “Dear NoMo, 5 years of your incompetence and arrogance has destroyed the lives of our farmers. Giving them Rs. 17 a day is an insult to everything they stand and work for.”
Chidamabaram said: “My one line comment on the budget is that it was not a Vote on Account but an Account for, the government has trampled on time-honoured conventions," he said.
Chidambaram said a government confident of returning to power would have respected the conventions.
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"It is crystal clear that the government has no hope of returning to power and has, therefore, acted desperately and recklessly, and in violation of the Constitution," he said.
The big takeaway is that the present government has further weakened fiscal stability and for the second year in succession the government has missed the fiscal deficit target, he said.
All of the announcements are "last-gasp announcements" by a government whose term will effectively end in about 90 days, Chidambaram said.
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