New Delhi, Jul 23 (IANS): Calling the Union Budget 2024-25 "discriminatory" and "dangerous", the Congress on Tuesday evening announced that the party's Chief Ministers -- Siddaramaiah (Karnataka), Revanth Reddy (Telangana), and Sukhvinder Sukhu (Himachal Pradesh) -- will not attend the NITI Aayog Governing Council meeting scheduled in the national capital on July 27.
Tamil Nadu Chief Minister and DMK chief M.K. Stalin too has said that he would boycott the NITI Aayog meeting to be chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on July 27 as a mark of protest.
"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. In protest, INC CMs will be boycotting the NITI Aayog meeting scheduled for 27th July," Congress General Secretary (Organisation), K.C. Venugopal said in a post on X.
"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," he added.
Earlier in the day, Finance Minister Niramala Sitharaman announced a slew of measures during her 80-minute Budget speech, including a hike in standard deduction in the new tax regime from Rs 50,000 to Rs 75,000, revisions to tax slabs in the new regime, cut in Customs duty on gold and silver, three schemes under employment-linked incentives, and Rs 2 lakh crore for job creation, among others.
However, the Congress took a jibe at the Centre soon after the announcements, calling them nothing but a "Sarkar Bachao" Budget driven by the political compulsions for the survival of this "lame duck" government.
Taking to X, Venugopal said, "The Budget will do nothing to address inflation or solve the farmers’ crisis. It has absolutely nothing for the middle classes. Much like the 10 (previous) Budgets, this Union Budget is also far removed from the concerns of the ordinary Indian.
"While the government has belatedly recognised that job creation is the need of the hour, its so-called announcements are totally insincere and non-serious. They could not even properly copy from our Nyay Patra."
According to Venugopal, merely throwing large headline numbers while giving pittances in reality is nothing but a cruel joke on the future of India’s youth.
"Every segment of the Indian society is going to be in an even worse situation after this Budget, and this government that is completely cut off from the pain of the people will simply be concerned about its survival," he said.