Chandigarh:

Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman accused the Congress on Sunday of “spreading lies and creating a false narrative” against the BJP-led Centre, and asked the party workers to counter this “falsehood” with facts and data.

Nirmala Sitharaman said this while addressing a meeting of the Chandigarh BJP state executive. Later, she also held a meeting with traders to understand their issues and know their demands.

Referring to the recently-concluded Lok Sabha polls, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader said the Congress has now failed to touch the 250-seat mark in the last 10 general elections.

“Even then, they have an artificial confidence,” she said while pointing towards the Congress’s performance in the last 10 Lok Sabha polls.

“The INDI alliance, comprising 13 political parties, could manage to win just 232 seats, while the BJP on its own won 240 seats,” Nirmala Sitharaman said.

She also pointed out that the Congress could not win a single seat in 14 states in this year’s Lok Sabha election.

The finance minister accused the Congress of “spreading lies” and trying to twist certain statements of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Home Minister Amit Shah and Union minister Nitin Gadkari in order to create a “false narrative”.

Slamming the Congress for its “lies”, she alleged that the opposition party tried to “spread falsehood” on many issues, including the compensation given to people in Ayodhya for their land acquired for building the Ram temple, the Agnipath scheme for short-term military recruitment and electronic voting machines (EVMs).

Nirmala Sitharaman said Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath himself had stated that his government had given a total compensation amount of Rs 1,733 crore for the land acquired for the Ram temple.

She also accused the Congress of giving false statements against the Agnipath scheme.

“We should seriously understand the strategy of the Congress. Attempts are being made to attack the BJP by making wrong statements, spreading lies and creating a false narrative,” the finance minister said.

She said every “false statement” the opposition party spreads, even on social media, should be countered instantly with facts and data.

Further taking on the Congress, Nirmala Sitharaman said the opposition party and its sympathisers went to courts against several decisions taken by the Centre in the last 10 years, including those related to the Ram temple, abrogating the provisions of Article 370 of the Constitution in Jammu and Kashmir, demonetisation, the Central Vista project, the appointment of the chief election commissioner, the National Education Policy and the Mumbai metro project.

On the conduct of Congress leaders in Parliament, she said they raise questions in the House but when ministers give replies to those questions, they stage a walkout.

“That is not the role of a constructive opposition,” she said.

The Union minister said Modi got the mandate to form the government for a third straight time in the Lok Sabha polls.

Similarly, the Congress got less than 100 seats for playing the role of a responsible opposition, she added.

“The Congress must understand that like people give votes to form the government, they gave them votes to remain in the opposition,” she said.

But the Congress is yet to understand this, she asserted.

Nirmala Sitharaman said the government has announced that June 25, the day when the Emergency was declared in 1975, would be observed as “Samvidhan Hatya Diwas”.

“It will remind people of what happened on June 25, 1975 and why did it happen,” she said, adding that every opposition leader was put in jail during that period.

The Union minister asserted that the country is moving forward. “We have very good growth in every sector,” she said.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

The full Budget for the year 2024-25 will be presented on July 23, with the Parliament session beginning a day earlier, Union Minister Kiren Rijiju announced on Saturday.

The Parliamentary Affairs minister said the Budget session will begin on July 22 and is scheduled to end on August 12.

Hon’ble President of India, on the recommendation of Government of India, has approved the proposal for summoning of both the Houses of Parliament for the Budget Session, 2024 from 22nd July, 2024 to 12 August, 2024 (Subject to exigencies of Parliamentary Business). Union Budget,…

— Kiren Rijiju (@KirenRijiju) July 6, 2024

“Hon’ble President of India, on the recommendation of Government of India, has approved the proposal for summoning of both the Houses of Parliament for the Budget Session, 2024 from 22nd July, 2024 to 12 August, 2024 (Subject to exigencies of Parliamentary Business). Union Budget, 2024-25 will be presented in Lok Sabha on 23 July, 2024,” the minister posted on X. 

Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman had presented the interim Budget in February in view of the upcoming Lok Sabha elections. She will be presenting her seventh consecutive Budget, becoming the first finance minister in India’s history to do so, surpassing the previous record set by Morarji Desai.

This will be the first Budget presented during Narendra Modi’s third term as Prime Minister and also the first under him in which the BJP does not have a majority on its own. 

Expectations from the Budget have been high and were fuelled further when President Droupadi Murmu said in her joint address that it will see “many historic steps” and accelerate the pace of reforms. 

“This Budget will be an effective document of the government’s far-reaching policies and futuristic vision. Along with major economic and social decisions, many historic steps will also be seen in this Budget… “The pace of reforms will be further accelerated in tune with the aspirations of people of India for rapid development,” she had said on June 27.

For the middle and salaried classes, one of the biggest expectations is that there will be a change in the income tax structure which will leave more disposable income in their hands.

Stormy Session?

The special session of the Parliament, the first in the 18th Lok Sabha, witnessed stormy scenes with the strengthened opposition looking to make its presence felt under the new Leader of the Opposition in the House, Rahul Gandhi. In the general elections, the results for which were declared on June 4, the INDIA alliance won 232 seats and restricted the BJP to 240. The NDA, though, has a comfortable majority with 293 MPs.

The NEET paper leak exam issue, Manipur, Emergency, Agnipath scheme and the alleged abuse of the Constitution by the ruling dispensation dominated the special session and are likely to make their presence felt in the Budget session as well.