New Delhi: Trinamool Congress leader Mahua Moitra accused the Narendra Modi-led Centre of “extreme incompetence” after the central govenment asked for additional funds over estimated budget. She asked “who’s the pappu now?”
“The government and the ruling party coined the term Pappu to use it to denigrate to signify extreme incompetence. Let me point what the data and statistics tell us who the actual Paapu really is,” she said and read out data on the economy.
Moitra was speaking in the Lok Sabha during an on-going debate on demands for additional grants for 2022-23 on Tuesday. The TMC MP claimed that the governemnt lied to people for nearly a year where the latter told us that our economy is boosting.
— Mahua Moitra (@MahuaMoitra) December 13, 2022
“This government has us believe every February that this country’s economy is going great guns. We are the fastest growing most efficient global player. Everyone is getting employment. We are getting gas cylinders, electricity and pucca houses. This falsehood flies for about 8 to 10 months and then the truth comes limping after it.”
“And now we are in December and the government says it needs Rs 3.26 lakh crore of additional funds over and above the budget estimates,” she added.
The TMC leader further listed out a number of events recording a “negative growth” in India’s major sectors.
“NSO numbers were out yesterday. Industrial output has chunked by 4 per cent in October to a 26-month low. The manufacturing sector contracted 5.6 per cent. Manufacturing is still the biggest generator of jobs. 17 of the industries sectors that make up the index of industrial production have recorded negative growth rates. Forex reserves have fallen by 72 billion dollars in under a year,” said Moitra.
Furthermore, Moitra highlited that the Indian citizens are flocking to foreign for a better life, abandoning the nation. “The Honourable Finance Minister yesterday during question hour mentioned how apparently 50 per cent of FII inflows into emerging markets are coming into India. Wonderful. But her colleague, the Minister of State for External Affairs, just last Friday, in response to a question in this very House that almost 2,00,000 people — 1,83,741 people — renounced their Indian citizenship in the first ten months of 2022,” she said.
“This exodus of 2022 takes the total number of Indians renouncing Indian citizenship under this government in the past nine years, since 2014, to over 12.5 lakh people,” added Moitra.
Mahua said that this year has seen more people giving Indian Citizenship than any single year. High net worth individuals are willing to pay upto million dollars to get citizenship in other countries. “Is this the sign of a healthy economic environment? Of a healthy tax environment? Who’s the pappu now?”, she questioned.
The Winter Session of the Parliament began on December 7 and will have 17 working days.
