Former Union Minister of Finance, P. Chidambaram, who is facing corruption and money laundering charges took to Twitter to take credit for the interim budget announced by Finance Minister Piyush Goyal earlier today. Trying to take claim for the pro-poor budget, Chidambaram said that the interim Finance Minister has copied Congress’ declaration that the poor have the first right to resources of the country.
Thank you Interim FM for copying the Congress’ declaration that the poor have the first right to the resources of the country.
— P. Chidambaram (@PChidambaram_IN) February 1, 2019
Unfortunately, the former minister is lying, to say the least. Back in 2006, senior Congress leader and Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh, while speaking on the UPA government’s plans for the minorities, had said that Muslims have the first claim on the resources. Prior to that, while speaking at the National Commission for Minorities, the former Prime Minister had even favoured ‘fair share for minorities’ in government as well as private jobs.
So unless Chidambaram is trying to imply that the minorities, especially the Muslims, are ‘poor’, he is lying about Congress’ ‘pro-poor’ stance with respect to the resources.
In the interim budget presented today, Finance Minister Piyush Goyal gave numerous sops to farmers. The Centre also gave relief to the middle-class as individuals with annual income up to Rs 5 lakh will get full income tax rebate. Over and above that, the Union Government recently passed a law giving 10% reservation for economically weaker section of the society.
