New Delhi: Senior Congress leader Shashi Tharoor Sunday used a cricketing analogy to express his disappointment with the Union Budget, saying Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman “seems to have missed the ball”.
In an interview with PTI at the news agency’s headquarters, Tharoor said Sitharaman’s Budget speech seemed to have “lots of subheadings but very few specifics”, and was “completely short” of an overall vision.
As a Kerala MP, Tharoor said, he had nothing to be happy about in this Budget.
Tharoor asserted that the biggest unanswered question remains jobs, noting that there was little in the Budget speech to indicate how employment would be generated.
Asked whether the finance minister has “hit it out of the park” or “missed the ball completely and been stumped,” Tharoor said, “I don’t know if she’s been stumped yet, but she certainly seems to have missed the ball. In one or two places, she may have got edges, but I’m not quite sure that we’ve got anything off the meat of the bat so far.”
Noting that it was a fairly short Budget speech, Tharoor said it seemed to have lots of subheadings but very few specifics.
“There was nothing there for the states. In fact, fiscal devolution remains unchanged at 41 per cent, and many states have complained that they don’t have enough to fulfil their own obligations to their citizens,” the former Union minister said, adding that there was “genuine concern” over it.
He claimed that there were very few details on key aspects, such as what would be set up and where and cited Kerala as an example, saying the state has been waiting nearly 15 years for an All India Institute of Medical Sciences, but no announcement was made.
“There was a reference to an All India Institute of Ayurveda being established, but not any indication as to where. Kerala would imagine that, as a major centre of Ayurveda, it should be a logical place, but they haven’t promised us that,” the Thiruvananthapuram MP said.
In fact, Kerala was only mentioned in the context of rare earths and the turtle trail, he said.
“Even when coconuts and cashews were talked about, the state wasn’t mentioned. So, I am assuming that some of these subheadings she spoke about will translate into concrete projects and programmes for us….but where details came, we had reason for disappointment, for example, ship repair for inland waterways, they are parking them in Varanasi and Patna despite Kerala having so many rivers and inland waterways,” he said.
“I have a lot of these questions and concerns about that, and on the larger issue of where the country is heading, the biggest question remains jobs. There was little saying that we will generate jobs through this or that,” Tharoor said.
He claimed that the speech was completely short of an overall vision.
“What was it supposed to be about — whether it is supposed to be proclaiming a new reform era? It did not do that….What was it about? It was a series of subheadings, but there was no clear unifying vision,” the Congress leader said.
Criticising the Budget, Tharoor said welfare measures were not specified, except for the reference to the Mahatma Gandhi Gram Swaraj Yojana.
“What is interesting is that they took away Mahatma Gandhi’s name from the Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme and applied it to another alleged village development scheme. I’d like to see what exactly comes out of it and what kind of allocations it has,” he said.
“Some of these conversations perhaps need to await the full budget document,” he added.
Tharoor said he was not sure whether the finance minister had paid attention to the issues that voters and politicians usually focus on.
“For example, there was absolutely nothing for the middle class or the lower middle class that one could hear,” he said.
Tharoor also asked why there was no clarity given on whether the G RAM G Act would be given adequate financing. He said he was surprised not to hear his state mentioned more often in the Budget speech.
“It was also short on the kind of couplets from Thiruvalluvar we got used to hearing not only from Nirmala ji but even from the prime minister and other leaders, the vice president and others who used to love quoting Thiruvalluvar. Here’s an election opportunity in Tamil Nadu, a few months away. No Thiruvalluvar in the speech. I was surprised,” he said, taking a swipe at the government.
Normally, there is one big headline coming out of the Budget speech, but it was not the case this time, he said.
Asked about concerns surrounding India’s trade, particularly in the context of the deal not being sealed with the US as well as tariff issues, Tharoor said, “Well, the US was our largest market, and that market has certainly been affected by the 50 per cent tariffs.
“People have done various workarounds… I don’t know at this stage, unless some kind of accommodation can be found with the Americans, whether we will be able to recapture the chunk of the American market that we have lost.”
Tharoor said, conversely, the European Union could emerge as India’s next biggest market. While there is much to be enthusiastic about in the deal that was announced, he cautioned that it has not yet come into force.
“I had understood that all 27 countries of the European Union need to ratify it. I see the commerce minister has made a statement, saying that it is not necessary. I think we will have to wait to hear from the Europeans as to when and how this can come into force,” Tharoor added.
