New Delhi: Former Congress president Sonia Gandhi on Monday said Union Budget 2023-24 is a “silent strike” on the poor by the Modi government and hits at the heart of all far-reaching rights-based legislation enacted during the UPA rule.
In an opinion piece in The Indian Express, Gandhi also made an apparent reference to the allegations against the Adani Group, saying Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his ministers are resorting to loud chants of ‘vishwa guru’ and ‘Amrit Kaal’, even as “financial scandals” erupt over his “favourite and favoured businessman”.
“The prime minister’s policy to benefit his few rich friends at the expense of poor and middle-class Indians has led to continuous disasters — from demonetisation to a badly-designed GST hurting small businesses, to the failed attempt to bring about the three farm laws and the subsequent neglect of agriculture,” Gandhi alleged.
“Destructive” privatisation has handed over priceless national assets to selected private hands cheaply, leading to unemployment, especially for the SCs and STs, she charged.
“Even the hard-earned savings of crores of poor and middle-class Indians are threatened as the government forces trusted public institutions like LIC and SBI to invest in poorly-managed companies owned by its chosen friends,” she said in an apparent reference to the allegations against the Adani Group.