BJP leader GVL Narasimha Rao. File
| Photo Credit: The Hindu
The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Wednesday said the Congress-led Opposition should apologise to the people of Bihar and Andhra Pradesh for ‘mocking’ the Budget announcements made for the two States.
BJP leader G. V. L. Narasimha Rao said the Opposition resorted to “immature” and “negative” statements, whereas the Budget was welcomed by “one and all” as people saw it as a “progressive and pro-poor/farmer/youth” financial plan that laid out a vision for “Viksit Bharat”.
Accusing to the Congress of being anti-development, Mr. Rao said, “The real problem is that they were hoping this government would not last very long. Immediately after the elections, they made efforts to try and break the NDA coalition but failed to do so. And today, they feel that their hope of dividing NDA is not going to come true.”
Saying that “balanced development” as a primary objective had been the hallmark of all the Budgets presented in the past 10 years of the NDA government, Mr. Rao said special focus was being given to certain States, particularly in the eastern region, in order to achieve the goal.
“This is the reason why some special allocations have been made to certain States keeping in view their development needs, their long neglect, and as to how they are unable to catch up with the pace of development in other parts of the country,” he said.
Mr. Rao said the Congress and its allies’ opposition to the Budget revealed their political frustration and showed their negative attitude towards some States that required special focus.
The BJP leader cited the Congress manifesto which talked about special category for Andhra Pradesh as promised in 2014 even as no other State found a similar mention. He said it reflected the fact that Andhra Pradesh certainly required special assistance, “because of the ravages of division and the Congress’ neglect” of the State. Despite being in power there from 2004 to 2014, the Congress had “betrayed the people of Andhra Pradesh”, he said.
Mr. Rao said the Manmohan Singh government came to power twice because of the support from Andhra Pradesh but the Congress was now reduced to a “1% party” in the State. “I would like to say to Rahul Gandhi, that despite such a jolt, if you don’t want to learn then people of Andhra Pradesh will never forgive you,” he said.
He said the State was left without a capital owing to the Congress’s “hurried actions in 2014” aimed at getting a “political benefit out of State bifurcation”.
This Budget, the BJP leader said, mentioned how States were going to benefit and how the “Purvodaya” plan involving West Bengal, Bihar, Jharkhand, Odisha and Andhra Pradesh would be implemented in terms of investments in infrastructure, human resource development, education and creating better employment opportunities.
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