New Delhi: The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) dubbed the Union Budget 2024-25 as a “jhunjhuna” (rattle toy for kids) on Tuesday and said there was nothing in it for farmers, youngsters, traders and women.
At a press conference, AAP MPs Sanjay Singh and Malvinder Singh Kang also slammed the Budget presented in Parliament by Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman for “depriving” Delhi and Punjab of their due shares in the financial allocations.
This is a “sarkar bachao, mahangai badhao” budget, Singh hit out, adding that it has nothing for the farmers, traders, employees, youngsters and women but corporate houses have been granted relief.
He said the budget fails to address critical issues like guaranteeing a minimum support price (MSP) to farmers, ending the ‘Agniveer’ military recruitment scheme, reinstating the old pension system and offering tax exemptions on essential items, including petrol and diesel.
“This is a ‘jhunjhuna’ budget in which the people of the country did not get anything,” the Rajya Sabha MP added.
Kang, Lok Sabha MP from Punjab’s Anandpur Sahib, said that in the nearly one-hour-long budget speech in Parliament, Finance Minister Sitharaman did not even mention Punjab once.
He said Sitharaman mentioned Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand in terms of floods and announced special packages for them, while there was nothing for Punjab, which suffered extensive crop and property damage due to floods.
Kang said the subsidy on fertiliser has been slashed from Rs 25,000 crore to Rs 16,000 crore for the agriculture-based economy of Punjab.
Despite the rising cost of fertilisers, pesticides, petrol and diesel and protests by farmers, the budget failed to ensure a guarantee for minimum support price of their crops, he said.
Singh said farmers across the country are demanding MSP but there is no provision for that in the Budget. It also does not mention anything about restoring the old pension scheme or tax exemptions on everyday items, including petrol and diesel, he said.
Delhi pays Rs 2.32 lakh crores as tax to the Centre every year but the Modi government did not give a single rupee to the people of the city, he said.
Kang criticised the Budget as “anti-Punjab” and cited the state’s contribution towards the defence of the country and food grain production.
Punjab is a border state exposed to the threats of narcotics smuggling, terrorism and infiltration, Kang said, adding that the budget has not provided any additional funding to the state for securing the border for which the government wrote to the Centre several times in the past.
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