Budget 2016: Modi govt will not be able to fool farmers with hollow promises, says Opposition

March 1, 2016

New Delhi, Mar 1: Opposition on Monday dubbed as "mere rhetoric" projection of the budget as pro-poor and said government will not be able to "fool" farmers with "hollow promises".

Predictably, BJP hailed the budget calling its measures for rural India "historic".

In a sharp attack on the government, Congress said it has "failed to create an immediate stimulus" to address economic challenges including employment generation with former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh holding that it lacked any "big idea".

Asserting that the budget was short of both "vision and conviction", party Vice President Rahul Gandhi said a list of new promises have been made without any account of the "failure of tall promises made in last two budgets".

"Modiji spent the first two years mocking the Congress Party's focus on farmers, MNREGA, Rural dev & social spending. Now mere rhetoric, without vision or action, will fool neither farmers nor the poor of this country," Gandhi tweeted.

He, however, thanked Finance Minister Arun Jaitley for accepting his recommendation on removing import duty on Braille paper which will help the visually impaired.

Criticising the budget, CPI(M) general secretary Sitaram Yechury said it was full of "hollow promises" and will burden commoners who will feel the pinch of hike in indirect tax.

"As with the previous two budgets, this budget of the Modi govt is again full of hollow promises and slogans. The numbers just don't add up.

"FM says budget is about fulfilling 'desires & dreams' but it has no vision. The dead certainty from it is of a shrinking economy," Yechury said in a series of tweets.

On his part, BJP chief Amit Shah praised the budget saying its focus on rural India and farmers besides other measures were "historic". Shah asserted that this is the first budget since Independence that has focused so much on "villages, farmers and poor".

"The thrust of the budget is towards strengthening rural and agriculture sectors and boosting employment-generation....

There is a lot of focus on agriculture. There is a proposal to double farmers' income by 2022," Shah told reporters.

He cited the allocation of Rs 2.70 lakh crore to local bodies, decision to electrify all villages by May 01, 2018 and allocation of over Rs 19,000 crore for Pradham Mantri Gram Sadak Yojna to emphasise the focus on rural India.

National Conference leader and former Chief Minister of Jammu and Kashmir Omar Abdullah tweeted "By not focusing the benefits of #UnionBudget2016 on the #suitboot people @arunjaitley has cleverly made the opposition's job a bit tougher."

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Over 58 lakh names dropped from draft voter list in Bengal ahead of polls

News Network

December 16,2025

The deletion of over 58 lakh names from West Bengal’s draft electoral rolls following a Special Intensive Revision (SIR) has sparked widespread concern and is likely to deepen political tensions in the poll-bound state.

According to the Election Commission, the revision exercise has identified 24 lakh voters as deceased, 19 lakh as relocated, 12 lakh as missing, and 1.3 lakh as duplicate entries. The draft list, published after the completion of the first phase of SIR, aims to remove errors and duplication from the electoral rolls.

However, the scale of deletions has raised fears that a large number of eligible voters may have been wrongly excluded. The Election Commission has said that individuals whose names are missing can file objections and seek corrections. The final voter list is scheduled to be published in February next year, after which the Assembly election announcement is expected. Notably, the last Special Intensive Revision in Bengal was conducted in 2002.

The development has intensified the political row over the SIR process. Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee and her Trinamool Congress have strongly opposed the exercise, accusing the Centre and the Election Commission of attempting to disenfranchise lakhs of voters ahead of the elections.

Addressing a rally in Krishnanagar earlier this month, Banerjee urged people to protest if their names were removed from the voter list, alleging intimidation during elections and warning of serious consequences if voting rights were taken away.

The BJP, meanwhile, has defended the revision and accused the Trinamool Congress of politicising the issue to protect what it claims is an illegal voter base. Leader of the Opposition Suvendu Adhikari alleged that the ruling party fears losing power due to the removal of deceased, fake, and illegal voters.

The controversy comes amid earlier allegations by the Trinamool Congress that excessive work pressure during the SIR led to the deaths by suicide of some Booth Level Officers (BLOs), for which the party blamed the Election Commission. With the draft list now out, another round of political confrontation appears imminent.

As objections begin to be filed, the focus will be on whether the correction mechanism is accessible, transparent, and timely—critical factors in ensuring that no eligible voter is denied their democratic right ahead of a crucial election.

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