Priyanka Gandhi slams govt over 'rising debt'

Priyanka Gandhi Vadra criticizes BJP for borrowing ₹14 lakh crore, questioning the impact on unemployment, inflation, and economic crisis.

Congress leader Priyanka Gandhi Vadra slammed the BJP-led Centre over its proposal to borrow more than ₹14 lakh crore, asking why the government is "drowning the people in debt" the "burden of unemployment, inflation and economic crisis" is increasing.

In her budget speech last month, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman proposed to borrow ₹14.13 lakh crore by issuing dated securities to meet a revenue shortfall in the next financial year starting April 1.

In a post in Hindi on X on March 30, Ms. Gandhi said, "The Finance Ministry stated that the government is going to borrow more than ₹14 lakh crore in the current financial year. Why?" In the 67 years since independence till 2014, the country's total debt was ₹55 lakh crore, the Congress general secretary said while pointing out that in the last decade, the Narendra Modi government increased it to ₹205 lakh crore. The Modi government has borrowed about ₹150 lakh crore in the last 10 years, she claimed.

"Today, every citizen of the country has an average debt of about ₹1.5 lakh. For which aspect of nation-building was this money used?" she asked on the microblogging platform. Were jobs created on a large scale or did jobs disappear, she asked. "Has the income of farmers doubled? Are schools and hospitals given a facelift? Has the public sector been strengthened or weakened? Have big factories and industries been set up?" she asked.

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If this has not happened, if the core sectors of the economy are seen to be in a state of disrepair, if the labour force has declined, if small and medium businesses have been destroyed, then where has this money gone, the Congress leader asked. "On whom was it spent? How much money was written off in this? How much money was spent on loan waivers for big billionaires?" she asked further.

"Now, when the Centre is preparing to borrow, the question arises that why is the BJP government drowning the people in debt when instead of providing relief to them, the burden of unemployment, inflation and economic crisis kept on increasing in the last 10 years," she said.