Author: Express News Service
Publication: The Indian Express
Date: March 13, 2008
URL: http://www.indianexpress.com/story/283700.html
Launching a scathing attack on the UPA Government,
the BJP on Wednesday called the Union Budget "communal" and compared
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to Mughal ruler Aurangzeb for his alleged remarks
that Muslims had the first right over the state's resources.
"In the Budget, the Government said if
a Muslim student goes for higher education he would be entitled to scholarship.
Why is it that there is nothing for a poor Hindu student or a Dalit student?
Doesn't it amount to encouraging conversion?" BJP Parliamentary Party
leader V K Malhotra said in Lok Sabha.
Accusing the Centre of resorting to vote-bank
politics, Malhotra said, by saying that Muslims had the first right on the
Government resources, the PM had become the first person after Aurangzeb to
have said such a thing. "This is like bringing back Jizya," he said,
adding, "We believe in justice for all and appeasement to none."
He said a situation was being created which
existed just before the creation of Pakistan.
"No communalisation of Budget and no
Jizya," Malhotra said, as agitated members from the Government demanded
that his remarks be expunged. Claiming that terrorists were minting money
out of the country's stock exchanges, he said the fall in the Sensex soon
after the Budget was a result of withdrawal of huge amounts of money by the
foreign financial institutions.
Later, during the general discussion on the
Budget, the Rs 60,000 crore farm loan waiver drew flak from both the BJP and
Left MPs. "The Budget has spoken of 'tokenism' but has failed to address
many issues related to economy," CPI (M) MP Rupchand Pal said. Questioning
the loan waiver, Pal asked about the fate of the farmers who had paid back
their debts with great hardship. "You should not divide our farmers,"
he said.
Supporting the Budget "hesitatingly",
BJD MP Tathagata Satpathy said the waiver for four crore farmers translated
into a benefit of Rs 15,000 per farmer. However, calling it a "sinister
move to confuse the people", Satpathy said the waiver was a way of telling
the people that if they become conscious defaulters, every few years a Government
would waive it. He added that by this kind of a largesse, the Government was
spoiling the farmers and was creating a mindset where waiver is condoned by
the lowest in society. He said the Rs 60,000 crore figure was given out of
thin air and no sources of funding were highlighted in the Budget.
Meanwhile, Shiv Sena MP Suresh Prabhu maintained
that the waiver would not be of any help to 52 percent farmers who have taken
loans from moneylenders. He demanded that compensation be given to the widows
of the farmers who committed suicides in the past few years.
