Tharoor terms Union Budget as 'sit-down India Budget'

Senior Congress leader Shashi Tharoor on Saturday said that the Union Budget 2020-21, presented by Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman in Parliament, is a "sit-down India Budget".

"I thought the speech was far too long. It was as long as a complete T20 match, but much less exciting than that... In fact the first hour and a half I would say we saw nothing. We saw the same old empty slogans being recited," Tharoor told ANI here.

"In the last hour, we got a couple of interesting things. I was impressed with the inclusion of museums and culture for the first time. I was impressed with the decision that they would actually give a tax break to the middle-class people who are earning Rs 12.5 lakhs and less," he said.

 

Tharoor said that rural demand is a "major priority for our country".

"There is something really weak about the attention being paid to the agriculture sector and welfare... I am not excited about this budget at all. I think in many ways that after the slogan of Stand-up India, it is now a sit-down India Budget," he further said.