Opposition leaders gave a thumbs down to the budget presented by Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Saturday. Congress leader Rahul Gandhi was quoted by news agency ANI as saying "Maybe this was the longest budget speech in history, but it had nothing; it was hollow."
Sitharaman's speech, which lasted about 160 minutes, is thought to be the longest-ever budget speech. In fact, Sitharaman cut short her speech after she felt uneasy and asked Speaker Om Birla to consider as read the remaining part, two pages.
The official Twitter handle of the Congress critiqued aspects of the budget. The handle tweeted, "Core sector growth stands at 1.3% in December 2019, despite the significant fall from the same time last year, #Budget2020 has failed to lay out a roadmap or plan on how the govt plans to address this serious issue."
Congress spokesperson Randeep Singh Surjewala was even more biting in his criticism. Tweeting in Hindi, Surjewala asked why there was no mention of the "$5 trillion jumla and the word employment". Referring to the announcement of five new Smart City projects, Surjewala asked what was the status of the first 100 Smart Cities. He also asked how the number of people under the poverty line had increased.
The Narendra Modi government had been trumpeting the claim India would be a $5 trillion economy by 2024. In 2013, when he was campaigning to be prime minister, Narendra Modi had promised the creation of 1 crore jobs in five years. In 2015, Modi had formally unveiled plans for 100 Smart Cities.
The budget document has one reference to the $5 trillion economy target. In the section on the Financial Sector, the document states, “In our efforts to achieve the USD 5 trillion economy, the financial architecture should keep evolving and move from strength to strength.”
CPI(M) leader Sitaraman Yechury tweeted the budget was "just platitudes and slogans" that did "nothing substantial to alleviate peoples' misery, the growing unemployment, rural wage crash, farmers' distress suicides and galloping prices".
Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal criticised the budget for ignoring Delhi. Kejriwal tweeted, "Delhi had high expectations from the budget. But once again the Delhiites were treated half-heartedly. Delhi does not come in BJP's priority, so why should Delhi vote for BJP? The question is also that when the BJP is disappointing Delhi before the election, will it keep its promises after the election?"
