Ex-FM Chidambaram calls budget speech ‘most capitalist ever’, says word ‘poor’ occured only twice

Former Finance Minister and Congress leader P Chidambaram on Tuesday took a dig and the central government and Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman by pointing out that the word ‘poor’ occured only twice as she presented the Union Budget 2022 in Parliament today. “The word ‘poor’ occurs only twice in para 6 & we thank FM for remembering that there are poor people in this country”, he said.

Chidambaram claimed that today’s speech by Sitharaman was the ‘most capitalist’ speech made by any finance minister. “People will reject this capitalist budget. Today’s budget speech was the most capitalist speech to be ever read by an FM”, he said.

Chidambaram also called out the budget’s plan for the next 25 years. He questioned if the present does not need any attention, that the Centre is outlining plans for the future. “I was astonished, shocked that the Finance Minister was outlining a plan for the next 25yrs. Govt seems to believe that the present does not need any attention & the public can be asked to wait patiently until ‘Amrit Kaal’ dawns. This is mocking the people of India,” he said.

FM Sitharaman in her presentation announced that cryptocurrency is now legal in India. Over this, Chidambaram said, “Instead of RBI, FM has virtually announced that Cryptocurrency is legal from today. Now all of this is not beneficial to 99.99% of people of India,”.

Chidambaram joined the list of many Congress leaders who came forward in opposition of the Union Budget today, including Rahul Gandhi, Priyanka Gandhi, Bhupesh Baghel, Sachin Pilot and Shashi Tharoor. 

Notably, Chidambaram himself has served as the Finance Minister of India four times, from 2004 to 2014. 

Also Read: Budget 2022: At 1 hour, 30 minutes, Nirmala Sitharaman delivers shortest Budget speech

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