Union Budget 2022-23: Mirage of 'achhe din' pushed farther away, says Shashi Tharoor

Criticizing the Union Budget 2022-23 presented in Parliament on Tuesday, Congress leader Shashi Tharoor said the budget has pushed the incumbent government's promise of 'achhe din' farther away.

Speaking to ANI, Tharoor said, "It's a completely disastrous budget. The 'achhe din' (good days) promised to us eight years ago is still not delivered. The mirage of 'achhe din' has been pushed even farther away."

Taking a dig at the Centre, the Congress leader remarked, "No wonder the Modi government is talking about Amrit Kal for the next 25 years. All the targets can be pushed even further into 'India At 100' and the people living today in 'India At 75' have nothing to look forward to."

"Extremely disappointing, a damp squib! There seems to be absolutely nothing in this budget. It's an astonishingly disappointing budget. When you listen to the speech, no mention of MGNREGA, of Defence, of any other urgent priorities facing the public," he added.

Earlier in the day, Prime Minister Narendra Modi termed the Union Budget a "people-friendly" budget but the Thiruvananthapuram MP contradicted this. "I would like to ask him which people because there is no indication of any benefit for the common man. The middle-class was waiting for some relief in tax, but the only break seems to have gone to corporates," he opined.

Tharoor further condemned the government over unemployment in the country. "Unemployment is a serious problem. 53 million, that is 5.3 crore Indians are unemployed and the government is promising 60 lakh jobs over five years."

"They are barely touching 10 per cent of the actual need today. It is a pathetic attempt," he asserted, adding how the government is simply throwing up numbers since they came to power first in 2014.

"They have been wrong about their projection of the fiscal deficit and the estimation revenues in privatization. They have been wrong about the growth percentage and simply throw up numbers in the air," the Congress leader said.

"I don't take these projections all that seriously. Even the fiscal deficit which is rather dramatically higher at 6.8 per cent may be much worse in reality. We will just have to see how it goes," he added.

However, Tharoor appreciated the CAPEX promise of the government and said it is a good objective, provided implementation matches up to the numbers mentioned.

"I was looking at 2021 figures, the reason we have gone down every quarter is the amount of capital expenditure this government has done. So if we look at the numbers for the quarter ending in June, September and December, each one, capital expenditure was lower than the previous one. So suddenly, you are hearing a talk of a dramatic increase. I will believe it when I see it," he stated.

( With inputs from ANI )

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