PTI
New Delhi, Feb 16: Congress on Monday described the interim budget as "remarkable" while voicing confidence that its various allocations coupled with the government's performance would help the party hop back to power in the next Lok Sabha elections.
"Any objective observer would applaud the remarkable budget of the UPA government...It is an interim budget and we will be back in power in June to take it forward..." party spokesman Abhishek Singhvi told reporters.
He said that all parameters - schemes for the 'aam aadmi,' flagship programmes of the government, Sensex, social, health, education and rural development - "it is significantly better than the previous NDA government".
The spokesman rejected opposition charges that it was an election budget saying, "Although there is no constitutional inhibition, the FM has given a report card of the government and the comprehensive programmes which it has initiated. The FM did not announce any new schemes deliberately so that no one can make any allegation," he said.
On the complaint of the industry that the interim budget has not found any solution to job losses, Singhvi said in two months, you cannot find solutions.
"This is a copybook FM...highly principled government. We are confident that we will come back to power in June to take the policies and schemes forward,"
Expectedly, the opposition parties dubbed the interim budget as election budget, offering "poll lollipops" and alleged that the exercise has failed to address serious issues the people face.
It also went to the extent of terming the government's calculations on fiscal deficit as "Satyam's balance sheet."
Describing the budget a "poll lollipop" senior CPI leader Gurudas Dasgupta accused stand-in finance minister Pranab Mukherjee of "making his first election speech" in parliament.
"Our finance minister has in fact made the first election speech in Parliament without announcing the names of the candidates and spelling out the dates. After seeing Lalu Prasad's lollipop, we have today seen Pranabji's lollipop. The budget is simply a poll lollipop," Dasgupta said.
It's an election budget without any realistic fundamentals of economy," Dasgupta said accusing the government of not recognising basic human problems of the country.
BJP leader Arun Jaitley said, "Government calculations on fiscal deficit is wide off the mark.. It is like Satyam's balance sheet."
Accusing the government of "living in denial mood" and "indulging in self congratulation", the BJP leader said it is a poll budget.
"We are living in a period of grave world-wide economic crisis, but the government did not try to address issues of unemployment," Jaitley alleged.
Party colleague Vinay Katiyar said government's concerns for farmers are "fake" as they did not benefit either from the previous budget or this one.
CPI-M politburo member Brinda Karat termed the interim budget as "election manifesto".
"UPA finishes its last budget as an election manifesto. Though the impact of recession on the economy is very clear, the budget did not address the issue... it was not even mentioned in the budget," Karat said.
She also alleged that the government's stimulus package had no impact on the recession.
"The government is saying that godowns are filled, but the fact remains that people's kitchens have scarcity. There has been a massive shortfall in the food grain distribution to states," she added.
Finding "nothing new" in the budget, CPI leader D Raja accused the government of "hoodwinking the aam janata."
"The whole attempt of the government was to present a rosy picture of the economy and to hoodwink the common men... the aam janata... real issues were not touched upon," Raja said.