‘Relief for farmers a joke’

In a statement on the Budget, CPI(M) General Secretary Sitaram Yechury told BusinessLine :

“By now, the Narendra Modi government has become famous for suppressing and manipulating data and offering jumlas (false promises) to the people. The interim Budget for 2019-20 is yet another exercise in the same vein. The acting Finance Minister made tall claims during his speech about the record of the Modi government and promises of a rosy future for all Indians — which was a cruel joke played on the suffering people of the country.

“They have promised ₹6,000 per annum for every farmer owning less than two hectares of land. At ₹6,000 per farmer family of five, works out to ₹3 per day per head, which is a ridiculous amount. If you are talking about livelihood from agriculture, this amount is less than two per cent of the input cost in agriculture. What farmers have been demanding, and what Narendra Modi had promised in 2014 was an MSP which is one and a half times of the production cost. This relief is actually less than two per cent of the production cost. This is just another

jumla .

“There is no Economic Survey. So there is no data on which the exercise today is based. There is no credible data anyway as we know from the hiding of the crucial NSSO Jobs data. Yet, the Modi Government has presented a collection of

jumlas as the sixth budget in five years. Budget allocation for defence has fallen to all-time lowest ever in India's history. Considering the rate of inflation and foreign exchange rates, it is not possible to keep the armed forces at the same level, leave alone modernise the military. This is the Modi Government’s legacy.

“The final picture of the measures for revenue mobilisation and of expenditure allocations for the financial year 2019-20 will take shape only after the people of the country have spoken their mind through the elections to the 17th Lok Sabha.