Opposition
L.K. Advani, BJP: The UPA lost Bihar on the issue of BijliSadak Pani (BSP). The Congress has lost Punjab and Uttarakhand on the issue ofDal-Sabzi-Pyaz (DSP). There was a news item this morning reporting that the Leftallies had cautioned the Congress 'You have lost two states; but don't lose thelessons of this setback'.The Budget presented to Parliament today shows the Congress refuses to learnany lesson. At a time when the common man feels deeply distressed about the highcost of his daily meals, it was astounding to hear the Finance Minister exultabout the 'good news for cat and dog lovers', and announce that the duty on petfoods had been reduced from 30 per cent to 20 per cent! This government'smandate was: relief for the aam aadmi (common man) and kisan (farmer). Today's Budget isa total betrayal of this mandate.
Amar Singh, Samajwadi Party: The Budget clearly speaks that 'Congress KaHaath'(Congress' hand) is only with the industrialistsand not with the common man as they have been claiming. There is nothing in it to check inflation, price rise. There isnothing for women and the common man. This Budgetwould lead to Congress' destruction. This government has not learnt any lesson from Uttarakhand andPunjab.... Aam admi has nothing to do with Sensex and GDP. Farmers are stillcommitting suicide.
J. Jayalalithaa, AIADMK chief and former Tamil Nadu CM: TheBudget aims at growth without equity and would only further marginalise thevoiceless poor of the country, leaving them to fend for themselves or look forgovernment doles. The Budget displays the twin faces of the UPA government --the benign face for the rich and the derisive face for the poor-- the face of DrJekyll to the rich and Hyde to the poor. The only difference is that the benignface is masked and not candidly visible, by craftily giving the impression thatthe corporate world is not pampered. Farmers have not gained anything and havebeen completely ignored. The grandiloquent announcement that there is no dearthof schemes and no dearth of funds is nothing but pure rhetoric. Nothing muchseems to have been done to curtail inflation. The emphasis should have againbeen on growth, coupled with anti-inflationary measures, so that the fruits ofgrowth are available to every citizen. The half hearted attempts at reduction ofcustoms duties, marginal reduction in ad valorem duty for petrol and diesel anddual excise duty for cement will not help bring down inflation.
H.D. Kumaraswamy, JD-U, Karnataka CM: I find that the Budgetrecognises that the inflationary trend in the economy is disturbing but nothingconcrete has been suggested to contain the soaring prices. I am afraid that thecommon man will be increasingly burdened by higher prices in the comingfinancial year. The Budget recognises that the growth in agriculture was notsatisfactory and stresses the need to achieve the 11th plan target of four percent growth, but nothing new has been provided. There has been a lack ofimagination; bold measures needed to help the rural sector have not been taken.
Ravi Shankar Prasad, BJP:Chidambaram has made pet foods cheaper, but nothing has been done for the people.It has nothing to stimulate growth. The Budget was widely expected to have measures to check inflation, which ishovering at a two-year high of 6.7%.
Suresh Prabhu, Shiv Sena: Chidambaram's efforts would nothelp the aam admi. The Budget is listless, unimaginative andtimid and has no measures to rein in inflation. The Finance Minister has lost agolden opportunity to jack up the growth rate to ten per cent. In an attempt toplease all, he has displeased everyone.
Digvijay Singh, JD(U): This is a directionless Budget before the election year's Budget. Weall know what will be there in the next Budget.
Allies
Raghuvansh Prasad Singh, RJD, Rural Development Minister: We had asked for inclusion of 200-400 districts under the NREG(National Rural Employment Guarantee) scheme, but only 130 have been included..We are not satisfied.
Dr S. Ramadoss, PMK founder: The Budget contains several programmes to face many challenges before thenation. Agriculture and farmers have been given focus. It contains a lot of programmes for strengthening the ruralinfrastructure and employment generation. Despite more allocation of funds for various sectors, reduction in therevenue and budgetary deficits has proved the prudency of the Finance Minister.
M. Karunanidhi, DMK, Tamil Nadu CM: The Budget is farmers andmiddle class-centric. It concentrated on major sections of the population.
Outside Supporters
Sitaram Yechury, CPI-M polit bureau member: We will moveamendments to the Budget. We want correctives to be carried out by thegovernment. The Finance Minister failed to seriously address the problems ofunemployment and inflation and did not exploit the many opportunities foradditional resource mobilisation, specially by taxing the rich whose incomeshares have increased. In the context of the inflationary crisis affecting theeconomy, Budget 2007-08 comes as a disappointment...He has kept expenditureincreases under a tight leash while restructuring it in a way that goes againstthe interest of the working people and the state governments. There is no wordon granting price support to farmers to prevent suicides, on employmentgeneration and on implementation of 'pro-people' commitments in the CommonMinimum Programme. There are some references to the Left wish-list here andthere, but these are not matched by adequate allocations.
Biman Bose, CPI-M polit bureau member: It is a bad budget.There is no tangible proposal for families of farmers. There is no sign of anybold step by the Finance Minister in the budgetary proposals on agriculture,education, health and employment generation. The CPI-M had been telling the UPAgovernment repeatedly to pursue pro-people policies and ensure that commitmentsmade in the Common Minimum Programme were reflected in the Budget. Inflation isa big problem, as a result of which the common people are suffering a lot. Butno specific measure has been taken to arrest inflation and the government shouldhave taxed the rich to mop up additional resources.
Mohammad Salim, CPI-M: Though there has been more allocationfor the social sector, there is nothing much for the common man and labourers.We also expected the government to come out with concrete proposals forthe welfare of minorities in the wake of the Justice (Retd) Sachar CommitteeReport. But we are disappointed. The Budget has only increased credit flow,which alone will not help address the problems faced by the agricultural sector asalso the farming community.
Gurudas Dasgupta, CPI: The Budget is a deplorable exercise asit has failed to address the problem of farmers' suicides or the plight ofunorganised labour. It has even reduced service tax for corporates instead ofraising it for mobilising resources for welfare schemes for masses.
Congress
Murli Deora, Congress, Petroleum Minister: The Budget is wellbalanced with the focus on the common man. I would have been happier if exciseduties had been halved to four per cent. The elimination of excise duty onbio-diesel will boost environment-friendly fuels. The oil industry will alsobenefit from the cut in central sales tax by one per cent. This will assist ininter-state movement of petroleum products in a cost effective manner. Gastransport infrastructure will rapidly expand with the grant of infrastructurestatus under section 80-I. This will enthuse companies to come forward to buildgas networks in the country.
Jayanti Natrajan, party spokesperson, Congress: TheBudget has focussed on agriculture which was the most important priority area ofdevelopment. We specially welcome the increased allocation in education andhealth and the Finance Minister's effort to address issues concerning allsections of society. The concern for 'aam aadmi' is reflected in the exercise.
Jyotiraditya Scindia, Congress MP: It is a very positive growth-oriented Budget that can assist in empowering India into a new economicfuture.
