Tharoor calls for 'Invisible Kerala' hashtag as Budget skips southern state
India Today
Shashi Tharoor wondered why Kerala was not mentioned anywhere in Nirmala Sitharaman's speech, pointing out that the state has contributed significantly to India's growth story.
Congress MP Shashi Tharoor on Sunday hit out at the Centre over the Budget, saying it had nothing for Kerala, and sarcastically coined a new hashtag: "Invisible Kerala."
Tharoor wondered why Kerala was not mentioned anywhere in Nirmala Sitharaman’s speech, pointing out that the state has contributed significantly to India’s growth story.
"A disquieting sense of deja vu pervades the FM’s speech today. For a state that contributes so robustly to the nation’s forex reserves, skilled workforce, and soft power, Kerala appears to be entirely invisible in the Centre’s fiscal vision. A 'Budget of Invisible Kerala' in an election year is a message in itself," he tweeted.
Expressing his disappointment with both the Pinarayi Vijayan government and the Centre, Tharoor said that the Malayali is caught between a Centre "indifferent to our pain and a State Government in denial of its own fiscal profligacy."
"As the MP for Kerala's capital, I see that our State Budget was built on a fantasy of central funds that today's Union Budget has explicitly failed to deliver," he further wrote.
Expressing disappointment, Tharoor called for an alternative that "commands respect in Delhi and delivers development in Kerala."
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