Opposition leaders protest 'discriminatory' Budget in & outside Parl

Sitharaman slams Oppn, says can't name every state in every Budget

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The Opposition INDIA bloc MPs staged a protest on the Parliament premises on Wednesday over the alleged discrimination against Opposition-ruled states in the 2024 Union Budget. Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha, Rahul Gandhi, described the Budget as an “assault on the sanctity of India’s federal structure.”

Besides Rahul Gandhi, Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge, Congress Parliamentary Party chief Sonia Gandhi, Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav, and several MPs from the Congress, Trinamool Congress, Samajwadi Party, DMK, and the Left joined the protest held on the steps leading up to the Makar Dwar of Parliament.

Protesting against the Budget, Kharge said: “This Budget is anti-people, no one has got justice. They talked about a special package, but special status has not been given. This is a deceptive Budget and an injustice to the people.”

Sharing a picture of the protest on his WhatsApp channel, Rahul Gandhi said: “Today, along with INDIA janbandhan MPs, I protested against NDA’s ‘Kursi Bachao Budget’ in the Parliament House premises.”

“INDIA bloc will continue to raise its voice to provide equal justice to every state of India,” Gandhi said in his post on the WhatsApp channel in Hindi.

SP chief Akhilesh Yadav said his state, Uttar Pradesh, has been discriminated against. “They snatched away jobs and are now talking of apprenticeships,” he said. His party’s Rajya Sabha member, Jaya Bachchan, also slammed the Budget, saying youth have been given false promises.

The protesting MPs raised placards such as ‘We want India Budget, not NDA Budget’ and ‘NDA betrays India in Budget’.

“Yesterday, through the Budget, the government of India violated all the principles to keep the federal system,” Congress general secretary, organisation, K C Venugopal, said.