Budget 2025:No words like inflation and unemployment from Finance Minister: Shashi Tharoor

Senior Congress leader Shashi Tharoor on Saturday termed the Union Budget presented by the finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman as 'disappointing' and said that it only tried to woo voters in Delhi and Bihar, which showed the Bharatiya Janata Party's (BJP) 'short-term thinking'.

He said that a far more visionary approach was needed to get the country out of the economic crisis.

Lok Sabha member Tharoor said in an interview to PTI said that he did not even hear the words 'inflation' and 'unemployment' from Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman during her budget speech.

Asked about the exemption of income up to Rs 12 lakh per annum under the new tax regime, Tharoor said it would benefit the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the announcement of a free tax for Bihar. They will get votes. He said it was "short-term thinking" of the ruling party.

Tharoor said, "The truth is that if you have a job and you are earning Rs 12 lakh or less, then you have reason to be happy. If you don't have a job, it's not clear from this budget where the jobs will come from. If you are living in Bihar and you are from an ally (of the BJP), there is no doubt that you will get help in the elections," he said.

"There are many gifts for the middle class tax cuts for Delhi voters and for Bihar," he said. But this is the same party that talks about 'one nation, one election'. I am sure the people of Andhra Pradesh are thinking that we would have got a lot of freebies if we had this election here too.''

The former Union minister said that this shows that it is good to have separate elections in different years because then Bihar benefits more.

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