DMK member accuses govt of trying to paint past in saffron

DMK leader K Kanimozhi on Thursday accused the Modi government of not only painting the contemporary India "saffron" but going back in history to paint the past in the Hindutva colour as well.

Speaking during a discussion on the Union budget, she hit out at Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman for "going out of way to rename Indus Valley civilisation as Saraswati Sindhu civilisation" and asked the government to leave such work to scholars and historians.

Even experts have not come out with any conclusive proof of the existence of "mythical" Saraswati river, she said, accusing the BJP of always attempting to rewrite history.

In her budget speech on February 1, Sitharaman had said that entrepreneurial enterprise existed in ancient India and referred to "Saraswati-Sindhu" civilisation.

Kanimozhi said even scholars had not been able to decipher Indus script as she wondered as to how Sitharaman quoted from the era.

The DMK leader asked as to how the government will meet its targets as proposed in the budget when economic growth is only 5 per cent.

Criticising the recommendations of 15th Finance Commission on divisions of tax revenue between the Centre and states, she said they are unfair to states which have controlled population growth due to their consideration of demography as a basis for its proposals.

She also criticised the move to ask states to pay for defence allocation, saying it comes under the Centre's purview and its expenditure should be borne by it.