Finance Minister P Chidambaram on Monday made a veiled attack on Narendra Modi and Arvind Kejriwal, telling them "neither populism nor individualism" is an alternative way of governance and expressed confidence that people will entrust responsibility to a "hand" that works for equity.
The new TDP government will have to mop up over Rs 10,000 crore to fulfill the financial requirements for July, a retired senior bureaucrat said.
Participating in the debate on the budget, leaders of parties like the Congress, Bahujan Samaj Party, Aam Aadmi Party and Left launched an all-out attack on the BJP government for allegedly selling off the country's assets and PSUs to big industrialists.
The first part of the Budget Session of Parliament is likely to end on February 13 instead of February 15, sources said on Friday, underling that the total number of working days would however remain the same.
'With continued focus on votes, upcoming by-polls and purchasing politicians, the political hierarchy has little time for national defence.' 'They would do well to heed a veteran scholar, who says, "There will be war with China in the next few years. The next full scale war will have the involvement of Pakistan and terror elements, insurgents and intelligence assets operating inside India",' warns Lieutenant General Prakash Katoch (retd).
'The finance minister has told the BJP's core voters we are hearing you and we are sensitive to your aspirations.'
"Of the structural reforms, the GST has been the most historic in our country. Its chief architect is not with us today. I pay homage to the visionary leader late Arun Jaitely. GST has been gradually maturing into a tax that has integrated the country economically," she said during her budget speech.
The 79-year old veteran leader, who has already announced his retirement from electoral politics, said there is no question of him sitting at home, and after the assembly session he will tour the state and campaign for the party and its candidates.
The numbers become all the more important because actual tax collections fell short by Rs 1.91 trillion compared to what was projected in 2018-19. Besides, the Budget for FY20 did not give actual figures for 2018-19, but the revised numbers given in the interim Budget.
It is unfair to expect Mr Jaitley to perform miracles with the Centre's straitened finances.
Both the BJP leaders in their notices to Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla have alleged that Gandhi's comments were baseless and that he made "contemptuous, unparliamentary and dishonourable" allegations.
Farmers protesting at various sites on the border of Delhi on Monday unequivocally said they are only concerned about their common goal of having the three farm laws repealed, and what has been offered to the agriculture sector in the Union budget did not matter.
Though there was no official word on the nature of the business on the last day of the last session before the Lok Sabha polls, some party leaders said there is a possibility that it may touch the construction of the Ram temple in Ayodhya.
'Part A of the Budget was like it was written by somebody from the 21st century and Part B was written by somebody from the 19th century.'
In a statement, the Lok Sabha Secretariat said Thursday that due to their location at different places in the Parliament premises, visitors were not able to see these statues conveniently.
The new government that presents the full Budget for 2024-2025 in July should be ready to restructure the way divestment is managed and implemented, proposes A K Bhattacharya.
Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Thursday said Pradhanmantri Suryodaya Yojana will enable one crore families to get up to 300 units of free electricity monthly and help them save up to Rs 18,000 annually. "There is provision of Rs 10,000 crore for rooftop solar (scheme) in the Budget," said finance secretary T V Somanathan in press conference on Budget later in the day. Earlier in the day Sitharaman in her interim Budget speech said through rooftop solarisation, one crore households will be enabled to obtain up to 300 units of free electricity each month.
It also saw the suspension of 100 members in a span of four days for unruly conduct and a major security breach on the anniversary of the 2001 Parliament terror attack.
Excluding the pension outgo, the allocation in the Union Budget for the armed forces stands at Rs 3.62 lakh crore.
Like the winter session of the Parliament, the budget session has also begun on a stormy note.
On his sixth visit this year to Karnataka, where assembly elections are due by May, he also asserted that the 'double engine' government is a necessity for the fast-paced development of the state.
The deputy leader of Congress in Lok Sabha, Capt Amrinder Singh, said the budget was "not pro-poor".
Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav said his party would oppose the Centre's move to bring a bill in Parliament to amend the 1995 law governing Waqf boards, and accused the BJP of trying to snatch the rights of Muslims.
Modi said whenever Congress came back, all development works came to a standstill.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi will be on a two-day visit to the North East from Tuesday, during which he will attend the oath-taking ceremonies of new governments in three states of the region.
Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot is determined to implement the Eastern Rajasthan Canal Project despite the Centre's indifference.
There hasn't been any dramatic moment in the first act (the Budget) but nobody would complain. It's par for the course as long as the figures don't change in the main Budget, which will be presented after general elections.
As India emerges from the COVID-19 crisis, the ninth budget under the Modi government, including an interim one, is widely expected to focus on boosting spending on job creation and rural development, generous allocations for development schemes, putting more money in the hands of the average taxpayer and easing rules to attract foreign investments.
Gandhi said he was "waiting with open arms".
When Nirmala Sitharaman announced her new privatisation policy, there were serious doubts if the move had the BJP's full political backing. All those doubts were dispelled when her initiatives were endorsed by Modi in Parliament, observes A K Bhattacharya.
Moody's Analytics said that the reduced political stability and the need for consensus building that is inherent with a coalition government, might erode investor confidence in the near term.
The Supreme Court verdict on the Ram temple showed India's secular character to the world, Shah said.
After Finance Minister Arun Jaitley presented his fifth straight budget in the Lok Sabha, Bharatiya Janata Party members and ministers from the Cabinet reacted positively to the Budget. Here are some of the reactions.
Modi launched the membership drive of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party from his Lok Sabha constituency of Varanasi on Saturday, noting that it will further connect people from all walks of life with the saffron party.
'The first duty of the government is to learn lessons from a bad experience and course correct. It's a pity that the government is making policy without looking at evidence and differentiating between immediate and urgent.'
The row over the appointment of Bharatiya Janata Party leader and seven-term member Bhartruhari Mahtab as the pro-tem speaker is likely to cast a shadow over the session.
Some members held placards of news reports about unemployment figures.
'That Modi and the BJP can continue to treat the rising and expanding middle class this way shows that they have gamed its mind quite perfectly,' argues Shekhar Gupta.
She said I treated her like a bachchi. At another moment, she said I had gone to various people and 'bitched' about her. She also threatened to bring the entire matter to the PM's notice. A revealing excerpt from Subhash Chandra Garg's We Also Make Policy: An Insider's Account of How the Finance Ministry Functions.
The Congress released a booklet 'Nau saal, Nau sawaal', asking nine questions from Modi. The BJP rejected the Congress' criticism as a 'bundle of lies and mountain of deception' and said the questions are born out of 'pathological hatred' of the PM.
