Thaw after days of ruckus as Budget debate begins in Lok Sabha

NEw new delhi: oppositeness lawmakers on tues criticised the regime o'er the India-US trade agreement as the Lok Sabha finally took up a debate on the General Budget after week-long disruptions, with Congress lawmaker Shashi Tharoor describing the deal as a “pre-committed purchase agreement” and Trinamool Congress MP Abhishek Banerjee claiming it will “further marginalise Indian farmers.”Initiating the debate, Tharoor said: “While India may have obtained tariff reductions of one or two percentage points, no East Asian economy has agreed to deliberately dilute its trade surplus with the US through guaranteed purchase commitments.”ALSO READ | Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla responds to Opposition's no-confidence motion against him: ‘Examine, expedite’ “It looks less like a free trade arrangement and more like a pre-committed purchase agreement that overturns every principle of reciprocity,” the former MoS for external affairs saidWhen India’s total bilateral trade with the US stands at roughly $130 billion and a trade surplus of nearly $45 billion, the government has surprisingly promised to buy $500 billion worth of American goods over five years, which “effectively converts a surplus into a long-term deficit by executive assurance rather than by market demand,” he said.“No major economy has ever neutralised its own trade leverage in this manner. While the US continues to impose import tariffs of up to 18% on Indian exports, we have committed ourselves to lower tariffs to near-zero levels, open agriculture, dilute data localisation, soften intellectual-property safeguards, and even redirect strategic energy imports, especially away from Russia, to meet purchase targets,” he said. “This is not strategic balancing; it is economic pre-emption.”India and the US last week announced the framework for an interim agreement regarding reciprocal and mutually beneficial trade. As part of the deal, the US has agreed to reduce the 25% reciprocal tariffs on Indian goods to 18% and eliminated the punitive 25% tariff it had imposed on India for purchasing Russian crude.ALSO READ | In a first since 2004, Lok Sabha approves President speech without PM's replyTharoor, who spoke seated after suffering a fracture in his leg, described this year’s Union Budget as an “underwhelming” and a “squandered opportunity”. The Thiruvananthapuram MP pointed out only 41% of the over ₹5 lakh crore allocated for 53 major welfare schemes had been spent in the first nine months of the last fiscal year. He cited examples of the Jal Jeevan Mission, where only ₹31 crore had been spent against an allocation of ₹67,000 crore and the PM Anusuchit Jaati Abhyuday Yojana (PM-AJAY), where only ₹40 crore out of the allocated ₹2,140 crore were spent.“This is not governance. This is headline management,” he said.LoP Rahul Gandhi is expected to speak on Wednesday.Taking part in the debate, TMC MP Abhishek Banerjee said the government has signed a deal with the US that “opens Indian markets to heavily subsidised American farm produce”. “It may benefit American farmers, but it will depress prices, destroy competitiveness, and further marginalise Indian farmers. This is an abandonment of our annadata.”Referring to US agriculture secretary Brooke Rollins’s statement, Banerjee said: “She said that in 2024, America’s agricultural trade deficit with India was $1.3 billion and that this deal would help reduce it. These are not my words; they are her public statements. If our government disagrees, where is the disapproval? Where is the protest? The silence is telling.”SP president Akhilesh Yadav echoed the opposition’s concerns over the increasing burden on taxpayers in the country. “From birth to death, the common man is taxed at every step of life,” he said. The former Uttar Pradesh CM then outlined how every aspect of citizens’ lives is riddled with taxes, citing that milk and diapers are taxed when children are born, income and everyday expenses are taxed for adults and pensions are taxed in old age. “And even in death, the incense sticks burned at a funeral do not escape taxation,” he added.Defending the Budget, BJP MP Aparajita Sarangi described it as “pragmatic, pro-people and balanced in nature.” Finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman had “framed a blueprint to accelerate and sustain economic growth, fulfil the aspirations of the people, and align with the core objective of Sabka Saath, Sabka Vikas,” she said.Sarangi said the government had chosen the path of long-term growth over short-term stimulus. “In an age of a fractured global order, the Government of India has decided to keep building,” she said.She added that India has seen increased investments in healthcare, nuclear energy, rare earth minerals, data centres, and semiconductors — all of which would reduce import dependence and create employment. She cited India’s expanding FTAs as evidence of the government’s ability to navigate a difficult global order.Union minister Kiren Rijiju said “very ugly scenes” could have taken place had the BJP MPs been allowed to confront the Congress members on the day PM Narendra Modi was supposed to reply to the Motion of Thanks to the President’s Address in the LS. Releasing videos of opposition women MPs coming to the treasury benches on February 4, Rijiju said BJP leadership had directed its members to not get into physical confrontation with “rude opposition MPs”.(With inputs from Sanjeev K Jha, Ishita Bahl and PTI)