Budget was government's farewell speech: Opposition

Opposition leaders Monday dubbed the government's interim budget as a "farewell speech".

"This is not a budget, it was the United Progressive Alliance's farewell speech," Bharatiya Janata Party leader Prakash Javadekar said.

"They are trying to hide the failure of 10 years under global figures," he said.

"Indian people are suffering due to inflation and corruption... they have no answer for that," he said.

Communist Party of India-Marxist leader Sitaram Yechury said it was more of a political speech.

"This speech is more of a political statement than an attempt to deal with the economic crisis," he said.

"Their fiscal consolidation has been on account of contraction of expenditure."

CPI leader D. Raja said: "We should not read too much into the interim budget. Just before the elections, they have to justify certain things and they have to blow up certain things."

Bahujan Samaj Party chief Mayawati rubbished the interim budget, saying it had nothing new in it and only listed the UPA government's achievements in the last 10 years.

"Though they tried to make it an election budget, it is not going to benefit them," she said.