Anurag Thakur defends Budget in Lok Sabha, rejects Rahul Gandhi’s ‘dead economy’ remark
Speaking right after Rahul Gandhi’s criticism of the government, Thakur rejected the Congress leader’s statement that India was a “dead economy”. “India is not dead; it is a dominant economy,” he said, arguing that global confidence in India is reflected in major trade agreements, including the Free Trade Agreement with the European Union.
Thakur compared what he described as the “drawing room budgets” of the UPA era with what he called the “location-bound” and mission-oriented budgets of the NDA. Thanking Prime Minister Narendra Modi and finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman for presenting the ninth budget of the current dispensation, he said, “For the Congress, the budget was a political document. For the Modi government, it is a national task with collective participation.”
Highlighting fiscal priorities, Thakur noted that capital expenditure increased from ₹ 11.2 lakh crore to ₹ 12.2 lakh crore, terming it as evidence of the government’s commitment to long-term asset creation rather than “short-term applause”. He said the budget focuses on 12 key sectors including banking, Artificial Intelligence, industry, health, education, women, tourism, agriculture, defence, energy, railways and transport.
Touching on the expansion of healthcare infrastructure, Thakur said the number of AIIMS has increased from seven to 23 before 2014, medical colleges have increased from 387 to 706 and MBBS seats have more than doubled to 1.07 lakh. He described Ayushman Bharat as the world’s largest universal healthcare programme.
