In her reply to the Budget discussion in Lok Sabha, Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Saturday, 13 February, hit out at the Opposition’s comments saying that some of the common people of the country are “cronies”.
Sitharaman added that Congress leader Rahul Gandhi is becoming a "doomsday man" for India by “constantly insulting constitutional functionaries and creating fake narratives on various issues,” reported PTI.
“Where are the cronies? They are hiding probably in the shadow of that party which has been rejected by the people. The shadows who were not even invited to develop a port. They invited no open tenders, no global tenders,” said Sitharaman.
“Who are our cronies? Our cronies are the common ‘janta’ of this country,” the FM added.
Gandhi on Thursday, 11 February, slammed the Modi government over the farm laws in the Lok Sabha, citing the family planning slogan of 'Hum do, humare do' to say that the laws will benefit only select corporates at the expense of farmers.
The finance minister had presented the Union Budget 2021 on 1 February. While some lauded the proposals made to boost growth, several opposition parties slammed the government saying that it has persisted with a fiscal conservatism despite the current state of the economy.
Responding to the allegations against the government, Sitharaman said there’s ‘credible proof’ of the work done by the government for the masses, as she went on to list developmental work carried out under certain central schemes.
“Over 1.67 crore houses have been completed under PM Awas Yojana. Is it for the rich? Over 2.67 crore households have been electrified under PM Saubhagya Yojana since October 2017. Total value of orders placed on government e-market is Rs 8,22,077 crore. Are they being given to big companies? They're being given to MSMEs,” she said, earlier in Rajya Sabha.
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