Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MP KJ Alphons said in the Rajya Sabha on Thursday that job-seekers like “Ambani, Adani” should be “worshiped”, in response to opposition’s criticism that the budget left out the poor and only the rich. benefited. ,
The debate on the Union Budget 2022-2023, presented by Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on February 1, continued in the Upper House. According to Rajya Sabha sources, a total of 43 MPs had spoken during the discussion till Thursday and four more were likely to speak before Ms. Sitharaman’s reply on Friday.
Mr Alphonse, a former Union minister, responded to opposition statements that the wealth of the two men had risen by saying that global inequality was a fact and that Tesla founder Elon Musk had also become wealthy in recent days. ,
“You can accuse me of being the mouthpiece of the capitalists. I think any person who creates jobs in this country, I name people, because you [the Opposition] Named them, be it Reliance, Ambani, Adani, whoever they are, they should be worshiped as they provide employment,” said Mr. Alphons.
He said Parliament and “the people sitting there” had “embarrassed” those creating jobs, pointing to the opposition.
Manoj Jha of Rashtriya Janata Dal said that there is no vision of employment generation in the railway sector in the budget. “We are a welfare state. Don’t insult the poor by saying that you are giving free vaccines.”
Nationalist Congress Party’s Vandana Chavan raised issues related to urban development, demanding the creation of a municipal service cadre for officers on the lines of MGNREGA (Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act) and an employment guarantee scheme for the urban poor.
Shiv Sena’s Anil Desai said the budget “left the poor high and dry”. He said that the middle class expected that the Finance Minister would give some relief to small taxpayers and give relief to small businessmen. “It was also expected that tax rates would be raised for large corporates which are doing very well. The government favored the corporates, but the middle class, which is grappling with rising inflation and high medical expenses, is disappointed,” he said.
Kerala Congress (M)’s Jose K. Mani said the budget did not mention the lakhs of Indians affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. “The rich have become richer, but those who are not have become poorer. There is no real freedom without economic freedom, and the way the country’s income and expenditure is allocated has resulted in an increase in the number of poor, especially among farmers,” he said. He urged the government to provide a special economic package for workers unable to find jobs during the pandemic.
Supporting the budget, Ram Nath Thakur of BJP-ally the Janata Dal (United) demanded the government to conduct a caste census. He said that the condition of the farmers is bad and the government has reduced the allocation for MNREGA. He also raised the demand for special status to Bihar.
Congress’s Syed Nasir Hussain hit out at the government over unemployment, saying the only sector in which jobs have been created was the “vigilance department”, with the latest Karnataka college objection to Muslim women wearing hijabs.