Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Tuesday replied to the Lok Sabha debate on the Union Budget 2024-25 and attacked the Congress on its Caste Census agenda, saying the Congress Prime Ministers were strongly opposed to reservation and promotions on caste-basis.

Responding to Congress leader and leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi’s comments on the representation of scheduled castes, scheduled tribes and backward classes among beneficiaries of development, she said India’s first Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru “disliked” any reservation in the Services, as it could “lower standards.”

Later, Prime Minister Indira Gandhi sat over Mandal Commission and Kaka Kelelkar reports on reservation for backward classes. Then Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi had in an interview expressed strongly against giving promotions on the basis of reservation, she said.

Sitharaman said that Rahul Gandhi should tell what was the representation of scheduled castes and scheduled tribes in the Rajiv Gandhi Foundation and the Rajiv Gandhi Chairatable Trust.

The Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha should have kept these facts in view before commenting on the Budget Halwa ceremony and how many from the backward castes took part in it, she said.

The Finance Minister attacked the Trinamul Congress also for its criticism of the economy and said the share of Bengal in the industrial production of the country at the time of Independence was 24 per cent and it was just 3.5 per cent now. The Trinamul Congress members staged a walk-out in protest.

West Bengal accounted for 6.7 per cent of the country’s capital formation in 2010 and it had come down to 2.9 per cent, she said. The Finance Minister she was ready to give a White Paper on the Bengal economy. The State of West Bengal today attracted just one per cent of India’s total FDI, she said.

Mrs Sitharaman said Trinamul Congress leader Saugata Roy had made comments derogatory to women when he said the Finance Minister was not educated in Harvard or other foreign universities to come up with new ideas in the Budget. There are many women in high political positions in the country, she said, and did he mean that all of them are bereft of ideas, the Minister said.

The Finance Minister said the Budget sought to balance several objectives to address inequality and fiscal consolidation without any cut in social sector allocations.

Nobody is being denied funds, she said. Allocations for agriculture had increased. The Congress talked of legally-bound MSPs but it never implemented Swaminathan formula of cost plus 50 per cent more as MSP for farm produce.

An SBI Research report had said 12.5 crore jobs were created during the NDA period of 2014-23 while just 2.9 crore jobs were created during UPA’s 10 years of rule.

Responding to criticism that the Budget sought to favour Bihar and Andhra Pradesh, which were ruled by NDA’s crucial allies, she said mention of a few States did not mean the other States were not getting any benefit. Mrs Sitharaman quoted from several previous Budget speeches where just a few States were mentioned.

She said the Budget had provided over Rs 11 lakh capital expenditure to retain the growth momentum. The Budget sought to consolidate the prime accomplishments of the economy, showed an exponential growth in expenditure, and there was no reduction in social sector allocations.

She said the economy was moving towards 4.9 per cent fiscal deficit. Employment opportunities in Jammu and Kashmir had grown.

The Finance Minister said there was an attack on India’s social fabric, Parliamentary traditions, economy and armed forces. She said in the journey of Viksit Bharat to make India developed, it is necessary to have big economic strategic power, but if there will be instability and anarchy in the country, the journey for Viksit Bharat will become more difficult. This is a huge challenge, she said.

She said there is a conspiracy; negativity is being spread and fault lines of the society are being exposed, while mistrust is being created.

Even a spark can lead to lot of conflict, there are attacks on the armed forces, attempts are being made to divide the Army, the strength of the Army is being challenged. Whatever is being done about Agniveer is also part of that attack she said.