Brakes of economy have fallen off but govt's horn getting louder: Tharoor

Asserting that the Union Budget is in many ways emblematic of the government's "economic mismanagement and financial recklessness", Congress leader Shashi Tharoor on Wednesday said the brakes of the Indian economy have fallen off but this government's horn keeps getting louder.

Participating in the general discussion on the Budget 2024-25 in the Lok Sabha, Tharoor also took a swipe at the BJP over the renaming of Ayushman wellness centres as Ayushman Arogya Mandirs, saying a certain constituency in Uttar Pradesh should have taught the BJP never again to "exploit a mandir for scoring political goals".

"This underwhelming Budget is a woefully missed opportunity. After all, this was the government's chance to prove to the citizens that after the colossal setback the BJP suffered in the recently concluded general election, the finance minister (Nirmala Sitharaman) and the prime minister (Narendra Modi) have actually listened to the people of the country. But once again, they have let the people of India down," the MP from Thiruvananthapuram said.

"The Budget in many ways is an emblem of this government's economic mismanagement and financial recklessness made all the worse by its divisive policies," Tharoor said.

The Congress leader said when it comes to sectors as indispensable as public healthcare, the mantra of the BJP as with everything else has been to "rebrand and not revamp".

"So, you've had India's health and wellness centres which need more staff to provide cost-effective treatment to ordinary Indians regardless of their faith being renamed Ayushman Arogya Mandirs, casting a secular institution of a secular nation into an overtly religious mould," he said.

"But perhaps a certain constituency in Uttar Pradeh should have taught the BJP never again to exploit a mandir for scoring political goals," Tharoor said in an apparent reference to the Samajwadi Party defeating the BJP candidate in Ayodhya (Faizabad) in the Lok Sabha election.

Accusing the government of indulging in re-branding for the last 10 years, Tharoor said the opposition has rightly been calling it a "name-changing government, not a game-changing government".

"Honestly, hearing the inflated claims of the ruling party after this week's budget and all the TV shows I had to appear on yesterday, I am reminded of a garage mechanic saying to the owner of a car -- 'Hum aapke brakes toh theek nahi kar sake, is liye horn ki aawaaz ko badha diya hai (I couldn't fix your brakes but I've turned up the volume of the horn)'," he said. "That is what the government is doing. The brakes of the Indian economy have fallen off but this government's horn keeps getting louder."

Tharoor claimed that the government had been an underachiever despite setting high targets announced for 'Make in India'.

"This government thinks that rhetoric is a substitute for action," the Congress leader said. He also asserted that India is not spending enough on a crucial sector such as healthcare while other BRICS countries were spending 14-15 times more than it.

This Budget makes it abundantly clear that the BJP has run out of ideas, Tharoor said. "Rather than being a vision statement of the economic future of the country, this budget is an illustration, as has been pointed out by many, of their politics," he claimed.

The priorities of the BJP chiefly revolve around appeasing its two regional allies, forgetting that there are 26 other states and eight Union territories whose people have nothing to be happy about, Tharoor said, in an apparent reference to the JD(U) from Bihar and the TDP from Andhra Pradesh.

For Bihar, where Assembly elections are due next year, the finance minister announced spending of Rs 60,000 crore on infrastructure projects like expressways, power plants, heritage corridors and new airports. Similarly, for Andhra Pradesh, whose ruling TDP recently joined the BJP-led NDA, she allocated Rs 15,000 crore in financial aid through multilateral agencies.

Referring to the support to Andhra Pradesh, Tharoor said the people of the state have less reason to be happy at the supposed allocations made to them in the budget.

"The Budget only commits to arranging Rs 15,000 crore towards the development of Amaravati. This is not an allocation. It merely entails the facilitation of loans by the Centre from multilateral development organisations to your state instead of amounting to formal financial support from the Centre," he argued. This commitment will only add to Andhra's debt burden, the Congress leader added.

Tharoor also said the Budget is a "do nothing and claim to do everything" exercise. "No matter how much the government ratchets up the mythic vision of a 'Viksit Bharat' in its rhetoric, this is not a budget for a Viksit Bharat, it is a motley collection of schemes without an analytical framework or coherent spending plan and no pathway to achieve the boast and rhetoric of either Amrit Kaal or Viksit Bharat," he said.

"The government is selling us a penthouse in a building whose foundations are shaky, whose canopy has collapsed, whose lift shaft is yet to be installed and whose workers are starving," Tharoor added.

"The Budget lacks originality, ambition, strategy, we get no answers to the employment puzzle, we get no solutions on education and health and we don't engage in any of the crises of investment," he said. Tharoor added that the Budget India needs and deserves is much more than the statement of solidarity with the ruling party's political allies.