NEW DELHI: Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) President Mayawati took a swipe at the
Union Budget 2025
, saying it focuses more on politics than addressing people’s real problems.
Finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman
presented the budget on Saturday.
Taking to social media platform X, Mayawati pointed out the struggles of India’s massive population, citing
inflation
,
poverty
,
unemployment
, and inadequate basic facilities such as roads, water, and education.
She said these issues should have been tackled through the Budget.
“Due to the tremendous blow of inflation, poverty, unemployment in the country, along with the lack of necessary basic facilities like roads, water, education, peace and comfort, the lives of people in India with a huge population of about 140 crores are quite troubled, which also needs to be resolved through the Union Budget,” she said on X.
She accused the BJP government of following the same approach as the Congress, questioning why people’s hardships continue under their rule. “But the budget of the current BJP government, like that of the Congress, seems to be more about
political interests
and less about the people and the country. If this is not so, then why is the life of the people continuously troubled, miserable and unhappy under this government too?”, she said on X.
Mayawati further stressed that the vision of a “developed India” must include the welfare of the Bahujan community.
Meanwhile, Congress MP Jairam Ramesh also criticised the Finance Minister, pointing out the rejection of proposals such as adding breakfast to school meals and increasing the honorarium for Anganwadi workers under Saksham Anganwadi and Poshan 2.0.
Ramesh claimed that the budget was biased towards the NDA-ruled state of Bihar while ignoring other states like Andhra Pradesh.
“Bihar appears to have got a bonanza of announcements. It is natural since elections are due there later in the year. But why is the other pillar of the NDA, namely Andhra Pradesh, been so cruelly ignored?”, Ramesh said on X.
Opposition MPs staged a walkout in the Lok Sabha as the finance minister began reading her record 8th Budget speech.
The protests were led by Samajwadi Party MPs, including party chief Akhilesh Yadav, who called for the government to release the list of those who died in the Mahakumbh stampede. Following this, opposition parties demanded a discussion on the incident before walking out in protest.
