‘Suit-Boot Budget’: Rahul Gandhi’s jibe at PM Modi’s pre-Budget consultation with industry leaders

Manglore Today News Network / Yahoo

New Delhi, Jan 10, 2020:  Rahul Gandhi tweeted the photos of the pre-Budget meeting and termed it the "most extensive" consultation.

 

Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Friday slammed Prime Minister Narendra Modi over his pre-Budget consultations with industry leaders. Tweeting the photos of the meeting, said to be the "most extensive" consultation ahead of the Budget ever, Rahul said Prime Minister Narendra Modi is not interested in listening to the voices of farmers and the youth and termed the Budget as "SuitBootBudget". The Union Budget is slated to be presented on February 1.

"Modi’s "most extensive" budget consultation ever, is reserved for crony capitalist friends and the super rich. He has no interest in the views or voices of our farmers, students, youth, women, Govt and PSU employees, small businessmen or middle class tax payers," he tweeted.

The meeting between PM Narendra Modi and industrialists took place on Thursday in Delhi. Besides PM Modi, Home Minister Amit Shah was also present at the meet and was seen sitting next to him. However, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman was missing from the meeting.

As many as 40 economists, industry leaders including Ratan Tata and Mukesh Ambani, bankers and experts attended the meeting. They all spoke on achieving the USD 5-trillion economy, investments, credit growth, boosting consumption and reforms in the two-hour meeting.

Rahul’s comment comes after the Congress party took to Twitter to mock the meeting. "Here is a suggestion, next budget meeting, consider inviting the Finance Minister," Congress tweeted from its official twitter handle.

"How many men does it take to do a woman’s job?" the grand old party said in another tweet.

Senior Congress leader Shashi Tharoor too questioned the absence of Finance Minister at the meeting. "What’s going on here? Finance Minister indisposed?" he tweeted.

However, Sitharaman’s office responded to Tharoor quickly, saying she has already held a meeting with the industry leaders last month. "Sir, the minister has already met economists on 20th December 2019, as a part of the pre-budget consultations," tweeted the Finance Minister’s office.