Budget contains nothing for Bihar, farmers, says Tejashwi Yadav
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The RJD on Thursday alleged that there was “nothing” for Bihar in the union budget presented by Finance Minister Arun Jaitley and squarely blamed Chief Minister Nitish Kumar for the alleged “stepmotherly treatment” meted out by the Centre. “The budget contained nothing for Bihar. The state got nothing despite promises of a special package and a special status. Nitish Kumar should tell us whether this is the double engine for him. It is because of him that the Centre is meting out stepmotherly treatment to Bihar”, RJD leader Tejashwi Yadav said in a tweet.
The criticism of Kumar by Yadav, who is leader of the opposition in the state assembly, came against the backdrop of the latter having last year walked out of the Grand Alliance and rejoined the BJP-led NDA claiming that the decision was taken in the interests of Bihar. The “double engine” idiom was used by Prime Minister Narendra Modi during the 2015 assembly polls in the state, which RJD and Kumar’s JD(U) had fought in alliance. Modi had said that the state must have the same party – the BJP – in power at the Centre as well as in Bihar for rapid development.
The idiom has of late been repeatedly used by the young RJD leader, who was formerly Kumar’s deputy, for taking potshots at the chief minister whose exit from ‘Mahagathbandhan’ followed corruption cases against Yadav. In another tweet, Yadav alleged that the budget was “a fraud” against farmers. “Minimum support price for wheat is Rs 1600 per quintal but farmers still have to sell their produce for Rs 1300 per quintal … you can not decide the farmers’ fate sitting in airconditioned cabins”.
The RJD leader also said “If the government is really concerned about farmers, why does it not waive their loans. Such a measure too would lead to a rise in their incomes”. “The country’s capitalists have non-performing assets worth Rs 10 lakh crore. But the BJP government finds it hard to waive farmers’ loans worth a few thousand crores”, Yadav said in another tweet.
Courtesy: PTI
