Interim Budget sign that government is afraid of not returning to power: TDP

The Telugu Desam Party (TDP) on Monday said that the Interim Budget 2019-20 was an attempt to woo the voters and an indication that the Central government was afraid of not coming back to power.

"There has been a lot of confusion in the budget. There has been a tradition of presenting an account budget. But when they spoke about it, they said it is an interim budget. And when they presented the budget, it came out as a full-fledged budget," TDP MP Rammohan Naidu said during the discussion on the Interim Budget in the Lok Sabha.

"What is the confusion? What has compelled them to present a full-fledged budget?"

The government presented its Interim Budget in the Lok Sabha on February 1.

Naidu said the government introduced so many schemes to woo the farmers and others, which was a sign that it was afraid of not coming back to power again.

In that sense, he said, the government presented a budget for "votes and nothing else".

Naidu added that his party's main demand was special status for Andhra Pradesh.

"We are only asking for the rights that have been promised to Andhra Pradesh. We are not asking for anything more. We are just asking for the things which were promised by the current Central government, the previous Prime Minister. The present Prime Minister had assured us before becoming the PM that a special status will be given to Andhra Pradesh, not only for five years but for a term of 10 years," Naidu said.

But the Prime Minister has taken a u-turn after 2014, he said.

"Every time, we asked for special status for Andhra Pradesh. Had we been given the special status in 2014, we would not have been protesting," Naidu said.

He said that Narendra Modi, during his recent visit to Guntur, made personal remarks against Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu. "This is the kind of thing the Prime Minister is promoting in this country," he said.

"Anyone who questions him, anyone who demands something, anyone who asks for justice, Modi sends CBI, ED or the Income Tax Department after them. He uses the institutions undemocratically. I don't think the country is going to tolerate this kind of leadership," Naidu said.

The country will teach the BJP a lesson by voting against such a "dictatorship", he said.

The Centre has not done anything for Andhra Pradesh and not a single assurance has been fulfilled, Naidu alleged.

"The same thing has happened with West Bengal and Tamil Nadu. That is why we want to stand united in terms of opposition because we have been cheated and insulted. Together we want to find justice," Naidu said.

On farmers issues, he said the Central government is afraid of releasing the farmer's suicide data prepared by the National Crime Record Bureau (NCRB).

--IANS

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