Opposition leaders stage protest in parliament against ‘discriminatory’ Budget

INDIA bloc leaders on Wednesday staged a protest in the parliament against the Union Budget 2024 which they called 'discriminatory'. The Budget announced that Andhra Pradesh and Bihar would get significant funds.

As soon as the House met for the day, opposition members tried to raise the issue of budgetary allocations.

As opposition members raised slogans, Speaker Om Birla cautioned them against disrupting the Question Hour. He said members from both the sides should follow parliamentary traditions.


He questioned the opposition for disrupting House proceedings in a "planned manner".

Both Birla and Parliamentary Affairs Minister Kiren Rijiju flagged the issue of MPs facing difficulty in entering Parliament House due to opposition protests on the steps of the building. He said several members have written to him over the difficulty faced by them.

The opposition members staged a walkout as they were disallowed to raise their issue,

In a host of developmental projects, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman proposed a total outlay of over Rs 60,000 crore for various projects in Bihar. The Budget proposed to allocate Rs 26,000 crore for building highways in Bihar. The finance minister also proposed to expedite the requests of Nitish kumar's Bihar government for loans from multilateral banks. Additionally, the government has pledged financial assistance totaling Rs 11,500 crore. The centre will also support the transformation of Nalanda in Bihar into a tourist destination.

Sitharaman also proposed while presenting the Budget more power projects for Bihar, including 2400 MW power plant at Pir Payanti at Rs 21,400 crore. The Budget also announced provisions to construct new airports, medical colleges and sports infrastructure in the state of the state. The support to the state is in the form of capital projects, and not a subsidy or cash dole.


Andhra Pradesh will get Rs 15,000 crore in financial aid through multilateral agencies for the development of its capital city, Amaravati, a dream project of Chief Minister Naidu.

Sitharaman mentioned that under the AP Reorganisation Act, funding will be allocated to support industrial growth by developing crucial infrastructure like water, power, railways, and roads. Additionally, grants will be provided for underdeveloped areas in Rayalaseema, Prakasam, and North coastal Andhra Pradesh, as mandated by the Act.

While speaking to reporters outside the Bihar Assembly, Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, who has had an on-again, off-again relationship with the BJP and the NDA, said, "Sab kuch dhire dhire jaan jaiyega (You will get to know everything in due course)."

"As a follow-up, they have announced aid for a lot of things . We were speaking of special status and a lot of people said that the provision for special status has been done away with much earlier. So, instead of that, they have now announced aid to help Bihar," he added.

West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee criticised the budget on Tuesday. She said the budget was "Directionless, anti-people, no vision, only political mission is there." She added that it was a "dark budget".


"This Budget is anti-people, anti-poor and not for the common people. This is a Budget to appease one party. This is a Budget full of political biases," she added.

She also criticised the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) for making false promises during elections and not fulfilling them, saying, "They make tall claims and make promises during elections. But after they get votes, they forget Darjeeling, Kalimpong. People in the hills of Darjeeling should remember this. Let Sikkim get things, we have no objection but keeping Darjeeling deprived is not right."


Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav linked finance minister’s announcements of development measures for Bihar and Andhra Pradesh to BJP's political compulsion to "save" its government and asked if there was anything for Uttar Pradesh, India's most populous state. Uttar Pradesh has given the country its prime minister, he added.

AAP MP Sanjay Singh said that the budget was a "jhumla budget". He added that it was "sarkar bachao, mahangai badhao" (save government, increase inflation) budget."

Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge said, "They made the budget to appease just one or two people (JDU and TDP) so that they can save their government."

However Sitharaman said, "there are so many other states where we have major projects. if the speech does not mention the name of a specific state, does it mean our other schemes and funds don't go to them? They go as per a routine and the expenditure statement mentions everything. This is a deliberate attempt of INDIA bloc to give an impression to people that your state hasn't received anything and has gone only to specific 2 states."