india

Updated: Feb 01, 2020 15:35 IST

Union finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman’s Budget was “repetitive, rambling and hollow”, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Saturday said as he hit out at the government for not addressing issues facing the sagging economy.

Nirmala Sitharaman said the government would inject more money into the agricultural sector and the Centre’s water scheme to boost economic growth back up from its lowest in a decade.

She also announced the government will sell its stakes in Life Insurance Corporation (LIC) of India, the largest institutional investor, through an initial public offer (IPO), as part of its divestment program.

“The main issue facing is unemployment. I didn’t see any strategic idea that would help our youth get jobs. I saw tactical stuff but no central idea,” Rahul Gandhi said while speaking to reporters.

“It describes the government well, lot of repetition, rambling—it is the mindset of the government. All talk but nothing happening,” he said.

Ahmed Patel, a senior party leader, also attacked the government saying the Union finance minister’s budget speech focussed “more on praising the PM rather than helping the common citizen”.

“Longest Budget Speech is also the most lacklustre budget ever After Acche Din, New India,it now appears that the Govt has also abandoned the target of $5 trillion economy This budget confirms not only the bankruptcy of the economy but also a bankruptcy of govt’s ideas,” he said in a series of tweets.

Nirmala Sitharaman’s budget speech came at a time when India is grappling with its worst economic slowdown in a decade.

The government estimates economic growth this year is estimated to fall to an 11-year low of 5% in FY20 from 6.1% in FY19. Estimated nominal growth at 7.5% in FY20 is the lowest since 1975-76 (FY76) as per the FY12-based GDP series.

Index of Industrial Production (IIP), which tracks manufacturing activity in different sectors of an economy, growth turned positive but remained low at 1.8% in November 2019 after contracting by (-) 4% in October 2019.

The Consumer Price Index (CPI) inflation increased to a 65-month high of 7.4% in December 2019, its fifth sequential rise, mainly due to persistently rising vegetable prices.

The Congress has cornered the Centre on the economic slowdown and highlighted the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government’s “failures” on the economic front, rising unemployment and agrarian distress.