Irked by criticism of Centre, Opposition protests inside the House and outside

As Chief Minister Siddaramaiah presented the Budget for 2024-25 on Friday, in a speech peppered with critical remarks against the NDA government at the Centre, alleging that “injustice” had been done to the State in devolution of taxes, the BJP and Janata Dal (S) members staged a walkout and staged a protest.

As Chief Minister Siddaramaiah presented the Budget for 2024-25 on Friday, in a speech peppered with critical remarks against the NDA government at the Centre, alleging that “injustice” had been done to the State in devolution of taxes, the BJP and Janata Dal (S) members staged a walkout and staged a protest.

BJP members had planned to protest in the Assembly during the Budget and had reportedly carried placards, but were not allowed to carry them inside. The Opposition benches erupted in protest as the Chief Minister criticised the Union government and soon they staged a walkout and BJP MLAs staged a protest outside. 

Leader of the Opposition in the Legislative Assembly R. Ashok termed it as a “bogus Budget” and said the Chief Minister, unable to present a good Budget, had baselessly blamed the Union government.

He said more than any other “bhagya”, Mr. Siddaramaiah had given a “loan bhagya” of over ₹44,000 to every citizen. He said the Budget lacked focus and was “anti-people”.

Former Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai, who presented the Budget in 2023-24, said the Budget did not make substantial allocations for agriculture and irrigation, and for north Karnataka.

“While the Budget shows Mr. Siddaramaiah has borrowed over ₹25,000 crore more than previous year, capital expenditure of the State has only gone up by just over ₹1,000 crore, which only means the government has been raising loans and spending it on unproductive causes,” he said, adding there had been a shortfall in tax collection for 2023-24 and to cover this up, Mr. Siddaramaiah had told many lies in an attempt to deflect the blame on the Union government. 

JD(S) State president H.D. Kumaraswamy said the Budget lacked credibility and described it as a “Naale Baa” (Come tomorrow) Budget. “The government seems to have not come out of the euphoria around guarantee schemes. Even in the second Budget presented by the government, they still are only offering guarantee schemes and there is precious little apart from that,” he said.