BJP lauds Budget, Congress calls it 'old wine in new bottle'

New Delhi (India), July 5 (ANI): Top BJP leaders including several ministers hailed the government for presenting a "futuristic" budget after coming back to power, while opposition Congress termed it as a "repackaging of the old promises" and accused the ruling party of failing to listen to the voices of the people.
Home Minister Amit Shah termed the budget as "hope and empowerment."
"The #BudgetForNewIndia clearly reflects PM Narendra Modi's vision for India's development, where the farmers prosper, poor lead a life of dignity, the middle class get the due for their hard work and Indian enterprise gets a boost. This is truly a budget of hope and empowerment," Shah said on Twitter.
Senior Congress leader and former finance minister P Chidambaram said the government failed to listen to the voices of common citizens, economic experts while ignoring the marginal sections of society.
"Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman has given no meaningful relief to any sections of the society. On the contrary, it increased customs duty on a large number of goods, raised taxes on petrol and diesel and proposed extensive amendments to the Income-Tax Act that will increase tax and compliance burden on taxpayers," Chidambaram told reporters in a press conference.
Union Ministers Smriti Irani, Nitin Gadkari, Rajnath Singh and former foreign minister Sushma Swaraj hailed the Union Budget.
Thanking Sitharaman for giving priority to infrastructure, Gadkari said, "In the making of New India, Finance Minister has given utmost priority to infrastructure. The budget of our department in 2018-19 was Rs 78,626 crore, now it is over Rs 83,000 crore."
Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath congratulated the Finance Minister, saying she fulfilled the expectations of the people. "It is for the first time since independence that a full-time woman finance minister has presented the Union Budget. I want to congratulate her. The budget fulfils the expectations of the people of the country," Yogi told ANI.
But senior Congress leader Shashi Tharoor and Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury, leader of Congress' parliamentary party in Lok Sabha, called the budget disappointing.
"Nothing new, repetition of old promises. They are talking about new India but the budget is the same old wine in a new bottle. Nothing new, no plan for employment generation, no new initiatives. They are trying to project India as an El Dorado for all but in reality, all of us are experiencing the pain of lack of employment generation, economy and more issues," Chowdhury told reporters here.
Tharoor, an MP, express unhappiness over government's decision to hike fuel prices, adding that he was not sure whether the Center will match the numbers put forward during the economic survey with the real numbers.
He said: "We are already paying the highest petrol rates in the world and they now want us to pay 2 rupees for every litre. This will affect the 'aam aadmi' (common man) as prices of all items of consumption will become expensive with the rise in prices of petrol."
Congress spokesperson Randeep Singh Surjewala called the Budget as anti-people, anti-youth, anti-poor and farmers.
"Modi ji's new government is against people, youth, poor and farmers. The Finance Minister not even once mentioned about the plight of farmers. She didn't mention as to how the income of farmers will be doubled or how employment will be generated?" he said. (ANI)