New Delhi: General secretary of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) Sitaram Yechury on Thursday said the claims that budget is pro-poor is the biggest fraud.
Speaking to CNN-News18, he said, the budget is going to be a burden on the people, in addition to the existing ones. "This is just jumlanomics, not economics. They are only providing slogans of relief to the people. The only positives are for corporates and international finance," he added.
"If at all this budget is anything, it is pro-corporate and it is giving greater concession to the rich and window dressing it as though it is pro-poor while burdening the poor more," he said.
As far as farmers are concerned, he added, the promises were made four years ago and till date nothing has happened. Till now farmers were getting much less than the minimum support price which is not 1.5 times the production cost.
"In calculating the cost of production, globally, all over the world, you include the family income - labor plus the cost of the land. Now, both are excluded in this cost of production. It is only what are the inputs bought and whatever the output. Now if that is the calculation, the farmer is going to be indebted permanently and that indebtedness is the fundamental cause of rising farmer suicides and that is not being address. It is a big fraud," he said.
He added that he expected more misery for the farmers. "You see the plight of farmers every day, their struggles and you still don't give them any relief. The states that claim to have done it have only announced it, not implemented it. The government, in these four years, has given more than 2 lakh crore rupees of waivers to NPAs and big corporates. For Indian farmers, you don't waive any debt. If you want to help the rural economy and the farmers, this is the least that the government could do," he said.
Commenting on the Rs 2 drop in fuel prices (petrol and diesel), he said it was redundant since they had increased the cess. If one calculates the cess, he added, the overall price comes up to Rs 6 or Rs 8. "What the right hand gives, the left hand takes away. And secondly, what is Rs 2. In the past one week, the price of petrol has gone up by Rs 7.5. So, decreasing prices by Rs 2 is no reduction at all," he said.
The veteran leader also raised doubts on the health scheme that the government announced.
"Where is the money going to come from? Plus, if you see, this is not new. If you combine the number of existing schemes, you can create a new gimmick. You're just repackaging the whole thing," he said.
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