Opposition members slam government, say fundamentals of economy weak

New Delhi [India], Feb 7 (ANI): The Lok Sabha on Thursday took up discussion on union budget for 2020-2021 with opposition members expressing apprehensions over the government's ability to achieve $ 5 trillion economy and accused it of selling "jewels of the country".
Participating in the discussion, Abhishek Banerjee of Trinamool Congress said there was "economic misery" on the ground and people were losing jobs.
"The Government clearly went ahead in its endeavour to present this year's budget with a clear motto. What is the motto? It is `If you cannot convince them, confuse them'" he said.
He said the budget had three pillars - aspirational India, economic development and caring society.
"If you are to compare what the actual situation is on the ground you will see that aspirations have been taken over by autocracy. There is no economic development. You will see economic misery on the ground. People are losing jobs. Manufacturing units are shutting down every now and then," he said.
He accused the BJP of "spreading hatred in the society for their own vested interests and petty political benefits".
Opposing any move to privatize LIC, he said the BJP had resorted to selling jewels of the country.
DMK member Kanimozhi said the Finance Minister has "gone out of her way" to rename the Indus Valley Civilization, as we know it, as the Saraswati-Sindhu Civilization.
"The Finance Minister has followed the footsteps of some people who actually would like to push the Vedic Age to 10,000 years BCE and to say that the River Saraswati mentioned in the Rig Veda is the same river on which the Indus Civilization flourished which is farthest from the truth," she said.
She accused the BJP of trying to rewrite history.
"This is a blatant attempt to rewrite history as the BJP has always attempted to do and they always love to give us history lessons as we have been seeing regularly. The Government not only attempts to paint contemporary India saffron, but it wants to go back in history and paint the past saffron too," she said.
The DMK leader said that Indologists like Asko Parpola and Iravadam Mahadevan have categorically said that the Indus Civilization is the Dravidian Civilization and the Murugan worship had gone from South India to the Indus Valley.
She said India had very high hopes from this budget.
"I fail to see how any of the proposed allocations will boost the income and enhance the purchasing power of people. They have been talking about the five trillion-dollar economy. Today, in real terms, the growth is only 5 per cent of GDP. At this rate, how are they going to be able to achieve what they are posing to us?" she asked.
Congress member Manish Tewari, who initiated the discussion, said that employment rate was high and exports and household saving rate has come down.
He said fundamentals of economy in terms of savings, consumption, investment and employment were all down.
BJP member Jayant Sinha said the budget had laid a clear roadmap for making India a USD 5 trillion economy.
He said it was people's budget and feel-good budget and had something for every section. (ANI)