Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao's threat to the BJP-led central government to "throw it into the Bay of Bengal" over the Union Budget faced a counterattack - "drown in the three oceans" off Kanyakumari.
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After the Union Budget speech by Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, the Telangana Chief Minister, also known as KCR, had criticised Prime Minister Narendra Modi of being "short-sighted".
KCR told reporters the "golmaal Budget" has disappointed farmers and workers and betrayed people. "The BJP should be thrown into the Bay of Bengal if India is to make progress," KCR said.
Reacting to the Telangana Chief Minister's comment, Union Minister Ramdas Athawale said the BJP will also drag the Telangana party to the "oceans". "Telangana Chief Minister's statement of throwing BJP into the Bay of Bengal isn't good. We will also drown them into the three oceans from Kanyakumari," Mr Athawale told news agency ANI.
KCR is upset that the Budget announcement provided for an arbitration centre for dispute resolution to be set up in Gujarat's GIFT City, when such a facility already exists in Hyderabad.
"If the centre has magnanimity, they should have praised the Hyderabad centre. They should have appreciated Telangana government," he said. "How painful it is that the centre is behaving like this? Such a short-sighted Prime Minister for this country... We are feeling sad that we have such a narrow-minded centre," KCR said.
The Telangana Chief Minister also attacked the BJP government of going ahead with the initial public offering, or IPO, of Life Insurance Corporation of India. "Why are you selling LIC, Modi ji? Something can be sold if it is in loss. It (LIC) is getting good profits. It has good reputation at the international level... My heart is bleeding... For whose interest are you selling it off?" KCR said.
The international arbitration centre in GIFT City for timely settlement of disputes under international jurisprudence would likely be on the lines of the Singapore International Arbitration Centre, or the London Commercial Arbitration Centre. Gujarat's GIFT-IFSC is the first international financial services centre in India.
The focus of the Budget is on providing basic amenities to the poor, middle class and youth, PM Modi said this morning. Leaving aside the political angle, the Budget has been welcomed by everyone from every sector, PM Modi said.
The Congress has called it a "zero sum" Budget. Congress leader Rahul Gandhi's "zero-sum" swipe mirrors what his party colleague and former Finance Minister P Chidambaram also said - there was "zero cash assistance, zero for those who lost their jobs, zero for those who're looking for their jobs, zero for MSMEs..."
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.
