Union Budget 2019: Here's how the Opposition has been peddling a narrative of economy going downhill ahead of budget speech

The Opposition has been gunning for Modi 2.0 government ahead of the budget presentation on Friday. From former Finance Minister P Chidambaram of the UPA era to TMC MP Saugata Roy, they have been hell bent in peddling the narrative that the economy is facing a downfall owing to 'disruptive policies'. They have also engaged in criticising the Centre heavily for its handling of country's finance. 

Congress’ P Chidambaram had on July 4 censured the government over the economy by citing the Economic Survey. He said “​none of these is positive or encouraging” adding that the Centre was negative about the economy. “...It appears to me that the government, speaking through the Economic Survey, is pessimistic about the economy," he said.

Ahead of today's budget, Chidambaram criticised the economic situation in an article titled, “No Finance Minister (FM) starts on a clean slate”. He cited figures of agricultural wages and farmer suicides, he said that they will not brook neglect from the government anymore. He also referred to the FDI inflows in 2018-2019 and the Gross Fixed Capital Formation and said that promoters do not want to invest as the capacity utilization has been low. He said that the Prime Minister's budget will judged on the basis of its promise to revive growth and create jobs.

On 24 June, during the budget session of the Parliament, Congress MP Anand Sharma questioned the Centre's commitment to Defence budget. He said ​“The actual increase of the Defence Budget, as per the Report, the recent Report, submitted to Parliament by the Standing Committee on Defence, was only 0.75%,” 

The Raksha Mantri, Rajnath Singh, had then assured in the Parliament that the Centre will not allow any adverse impact on defence preparedness on account of fund constraints. “We have taken precaution that there is no shortcoming on the country’s defence preparedness in any way by way of budget constraints. We will not compromise on India’s defence preparedness,” he said. 

READ | Union Budget 2019 | SCOOP: Modi Government Aims For 8% Growth; Fiscal Stimulus, Labour Reforms, Massive Infra Push And More In Store In Nirmala Sitharaman's Maiden Budget

TMC MP Saugata Roy had also spoken in the Parliament hitting out at the Centre where he said, ​“This government talks big. The rate of growth has fallen to 5.8 per cent which is the lowest in many years and the government has no policy on how to improve the rate of growth. It has no policy at all." 

Congress leader Randeep Singh Surjewala had made a claim saying that the country was feeling the tremors of disruptive economy. ​“Even though BJP has got a renewed mandate, India's economic woes under its regime continue to simmer. The tremors of the massive mishandling of the economy in the past five years under a government, which has mastered the art of disruptive economic policy measures, are still being felt,” he said.

CPI(M) leader Sitaram Yechury had tweeted that the economy was going downhill. "​The plot and more has been lost under the Modi government. Jobs and Spending down, benefitting none, except the cronies who have been taken care of. At least." 

READ | Union Budget 2019 On Stock Market: Sensex Reclaims 40,000 Mark, Nifty Nears 12,000 Ahead Of Nirmala Sitharaman's Budget 2019 Speech