Faced with criticism for a budget that critics and opposition leaders believe ignores the poorer portions of the country, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman borrowed a page from Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s book and used her speech to the Rajya Sabha to criticize Congress MP, Rahul Gandhi.
Ms. Sitharaman used a 2013 remark by Mr. Gandhi, in which he described poverty as a “state of mind,” adding that it “does not entail a lack of food, money, or tangible things” and that “…if one has self-confidence, one can overcome poverty” to criticize the Congress leader.
“‘Poverty does not mean a lack of food, money, or other goods,’ remarked your former president. It is possible to overcome it if one has self-confidence.’ ‘It’s a state of mind,’ he added. I’m not going to name the person, but we all know who it is “Ms. Sitharaman stated the following.
“Please be specific… is this the ‘poor’ you’d like me to talk about? The ‘poverty of thought…’ “Opposition MPs screamed their displeasure as the Finance Minister continued.
“The opposition couldn’t handle a lesser crisis,” she said, citing pre-2014 consumer price index data of 9.1% during the global financial crisis to 6.2 percent presently amid Covid. Ms. Sitharaman further slammed the Congress after Congressman Kapil Sibal said in 2014 that India has been under ‘rahu kaal’ – an unlucky time of day according to Hindu astrology – since 2014.
“It’s no surprise that we call it ‘amrit kaal.’ We will suffer if we do not have a vision at 100 (years of independence), as we did for 65 years with a Congress that had no vision other than to favour one family.” she stated
“In a furious remark, the Finance Minister addressed Rahul Gandhi… The fact that 27 crore individuals have fallen below the poverty line as a result of the economic crisis was brought up during the budget debate…”
