Priyanka Gandhi Vadra has ripped into Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman over her "typical UP-type" remark while countering Rahul Gandhi's criticism of the Union Budget on Tuesday.
At the post-Budget speech media briefing, junior Finance Minister Pankaj Chaudhary asked Ms Sitharaman to respond to Rahul Gandhi's "zero-sum Budget" comment.
"I think he has given a typical UP-type answer, which is good enough for an MP who ran away from UP," Ms Sitharaman said, alluding to Rahul Gandhi's loss in the 2019 national election from Uttar Pradesh's Amethi, which used to be a Congress turf since 1980, and winning from Kerala's Wayanad.
Priyanka Gandhi Vadra has called the Finance Minister's comment an "insult" to the people of UP, who will soon vote in a seven-phase election this month.
"You did not put anything in the Budget bag for UP, okay... but what was the need to insult the people of UP like this? Understand that the people of UP are proud to be a 'UP type. We are proud of the language, dialect, culture and history of UP," Priyanka Gandhi tweeted in Hindi.
Rahul Gandhi's "zero-sum" swipe mirrors what his party colleague and former Finance Minister P Chidambaram said on the Budget, that there was "zero cash assistance, zero for those who lost their jobs, zero for those who're looking for their jobs, zero for MSMEs..."
"Modi Government's Zero Sum Budget! Nothing for salaried class, middle class, the poor and deprived, youth, farmers, MSMEs," Rahul Gandhi tweeted.
The government has said this year's Budget focuses on improving infrastructure to boost growth amid the COVID-19 pandemic. Some of the key announcements include expanding National Highways network by 25,000 km this fiscal and emergency credit line guarantee scheme for small and medium sized businesses extended to March 2023.
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