A day after the Union Budget 2024 was presented, parties in the INDIA bloc are planning protests in Parliament and outside over what they see as “discrimination” against states ruled by the opposition.
On Tuesday, leaders from these parties met at Congress leader Mallikarjun Kharge’s residence in New Delhi to decide on their response. They also agreed to skip the NITI Aayog meeting scheduled for July 27. Attendees included Rahul Gandhi, Congress general secretaries K C Venugopal and Jairam Ramesh, and leaders from various parties like Sharad Pawar (NCP), Sanjay Raut (Shiv Sena), Derek O’Brien (TMC), T R Baalu (DMK), Mahua Maji (JMM), Raghav Chadha and Sanjay Singh (AAP), and John Brittas (CPI(M)).
Congress General Secretary K C Venugopal criticized the Budget, saying, “The concept of a budget has already been destroyed by this year’s Union Budget. They have completely discriminated against most of the states. So general sentiment of the INDIA bloc meeting was we have to protest against this.”
Venugopal also posted on X, saying, “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.”
He added, “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.”
