1 month ago
Last Updated: July 24, 2024, 08:07 IST
New Delhi, India
Parliament Session Live: In protest, Congress chief ministers will also be boycotting the NITI Aayog meeting scheduled for July 27
The INDIA bloc on Wednesday (July 24) will stage a protest in Parliament and outside over “discrimination” against opposition-ruled states in the Union Budget, which was presented by finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman a day before. Congress chief ministers will also be boycotting the NITI Aayog meeting scheduled for July 27.
“The concept of a budget has already been destroyed by this year’s Union Budget. They have completely discriminated against most of the states. So general sentiment of the INDIA bloc meeting was we have to protest against this,” Venugopal said after a floor meeting of opposition parties at the residence of Congress president and Leader of Opposition in the Rajya Sabha Mallikarjun Kharge on Tuesday evening (July 23).
Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi, Congress deputy leader in Rajya Sabha Pramod Tiwari, Congress deputy leader in Lok Sabha Gaurav Gogoi, NCP (SCP) chief Sharad Pawar, Shiv Sena (UBT) leader Sanjay Raut, TMC leaders Derek O’Brien and Kalyan Banerjee, DMK’s TR Baalu, JMM’s Mahua Maji, AAP’s Raghav Chadha and Sanjay Singh, and CPI(M)’s John Brittas, among others, attended the meeting. Congress general secretaries KC Venugopal and Jairam Ramesh were also present.
“The Union Budget presented today was extremely discriminatory and dangerous, which completely goes against the principles of federalism and fairness that the Union Government must follow,” Venugopal said later in a post on X.
He added: “This government’s attitude is completely antithetical to Constitutional principles. We will not participate in an event that is solely designed to hide the true, discriminatory colours of this regime.”
Congress MP Pramod Tiwari alleged that the budget had “blacked out” states where there are non-BJP governments. “We will hold a protest tomorrow in the Parliament regarding this. We will raise our voice inside Parliament and outside also…This is not the budget of the BJP, it is the budget of the whole country, but they have presented it as if it is BJP’s budget…This budget is againt the federal structure of the country,” he alleged.
