There is no unemployment in the country, only the Congress prince is unemployed: Tejasvi Surya in Lok Sabha

“Before Modi there was double-digit inflation. Now we have single-digit inflation. Before the size of India’s GDP was Rs 110 lakh crore. After Modi, the size of the GDP is Rs 230 lakh crore. Before Modi, India’s exports were Rs 2.85 lakh crore. After Modi, it is Rs 4.7 lakh crore,” Surya said, participating in the discussion on the Budget in Lok Sabha.

He said Congress’s “mindless obsession” with socialism had kept India poor.

“If the GDP has increased multiple times, if FDI has increased multiple times, if the number of unicorns have increased multiple times, how can there be no employment generation. The Congress party and their dynastic leaders are confusing their political unemployment as unemployment in the country. The hardworking and talented people have all the opportunities. The only unemployed person is the prince of the Congress party,” the MP from Bangalore South said.

According to Surya, the country witnessed an economic miracle in the past seven years under the leadership of Narendra Modi. “The progress and the pace of reforms is unprecedented. The 1991 reforms are talked about often. But the 1991 Budget was out of compulsion, not conviction,” he said.

Surya’s speech was countered by NCP’s Supriya Sule, who said that his accusations against Congress of being dynastic were hypocritical since the BJP was full of dynasts.

She asked if Surya could answer who is Ravi Subramnium, a BJP MLA from Karnataka, and if Surya is related to him.

“I am very proud of whose daughter I am. Pritam Munde, Poonam Mahajan, Heena Gavit, Raksha Khadse, Sujoy Vikhe Patil, Jyotiraditya Scindia, Piyush Goyal, Dhamendra Pradhan… the common thing we have is we were all born in political families,” she said.

On the Budget, Sule raised the issue of fiscal deficit targets set during the Atal Bihari Vajpayee era at 3% being revised to 6.9% in the current budget. “Will the Rs 1 lakh crore given to the state to implement central schemes really help them,” she asked. She also raised the issue of pending Rs 28,365 crore GST compensation of her state Maharashtra.

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Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, who was present in the House, chose to reply immediately. “The Rs 1 lakh crore given to states is over and above their borrowing limits. So it is not going affect their borrowing limits. There is no interest on this amount. The Centre is giving it for 50 years. The intention behind this is the states can use this amount to complete several of the projects that they want to. We are being supportive to the states,” she said.

“As far as 6.9% deficit is concerned, after one and half years of the pandemic, the only calls I would get from everybody is spend, spend. Fine, I am spending. It will show the results. And naturally you will breach the 3% target. So 6.9% is a responsible target,” she said.

Congress’s Pradyot Bordoloi reminded the House of the lakhs of diyas lit by the Uttar Pradesh government in Ayodhya and how after the function, people were collecting mustard oil from them. Referring to Yogi Adityanath, he said, “When Swamyji became CM, mustard oil was Rs 70 a litre, it is now Rs 250 a litre. Under the façade of pomp and gaiety around monumental structures and statues, actually lies the human cost of economic devastation in India.”

He said the Modi government brought down GDP growth from 8% during the UPA era to 3.5% even before the pandemic hit.

JDU member Mahabali Singh praised the government Budget but asked for special status for Bihar.

JMM’s Vijay Kumar Hansdak said the House should apologise for what happened to migrants during the Covid lockdown.

TMC’s Sougata Ray said the Finance Minister mentioned about ease of doing business in her Budget speech despite the fact that World Bank had announced to discontinue the ease of doing business ranking.

BJP’s Sanjay Jaiswal described the Budget as “future oriented” and said that it paves way for developing India as a developed country by 2047.