Nirmala Sitharaman also told News18 on the issue of jobs that there is a lot of shift in the way employment is panning out in India and only looking at indicators pertaining to the formal economy will not give the full picture. She also criticised opposition parties like the DMK and Congress for their ‘anti-Hindu’ and ‘separatist’ voices
A day after shattering expectations of a populist pre-election Budget, union finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman in a freewheeling interview with Network18 Group Editor-in-Chief Rahul Joshi said that the Narendra Modi government has been executing the principle of empowerment, “Sabka Saath, Sabka Vishwas, Sabka Vikas”, in every way. She said that the Interim Budget was presented with the clear understanding that several programmes, which were launched with the empowerment of citizens in mind over the last 10 years are reaching the ground, and the beneficiaries are already speaking about it on their own. While maintaining that the government is aiming for sustained growth with an eye on inflation, she said that a white paper will be released soon detailing the “mismanagement” of the economy during the UPA years and the course corrections that had to happen under PM Modi. Full interview:
Nirmala ji, thank you very much once again for giving us this exclusive, very special interview. Like every year after the Budget, through our News18 network, through CNBC TV18, CNBC Awaaz, CNN-News18, you will be able to reach every nook and corner of the country, and investors are glued into moneycontrol.com tracking every twist and turn of the Budget. Thank you so much. My first question, a somewhat obvious question…no sops, no populist measures, even in the 2019 Interim Budget, the government had announced some sops like tax rebates, there were some announcements for the farmers, but none this time. Seems like a very confident Prime Minister going into 2024 elections. You’ve never looked more relaxed to me before. What was going on in your mind while drafting this?
Well, thank you for having me, after the Budget, like every year. It’s a great opportunity to talk to your viewers and also for others who are watching this programme, more with keenness to know about the Indian economy. Yes, the Budget yesterday did not have any sops announced. We treated it like a true ‘vote on account’, an Interim Budget before an election, and also, an Interim Budget which is being presented with the clear understanding that the several programmes, which were launched with empowerment of citizens in mind over the last 10 years are reaching the ground, and the beneficiaries are already on their own speaking about it. The power of word of mouth is very strong. So, when a beneficiary gets truly the benefit and without any middlemen playing a role in it, they really understand that the intent of the government is what they’ve said is what is getting executed. So, I place a lot of trust in the word of mouth, which has helped in schemes like Ujjwala, PM Awas Yojana, PM Mudra Yojana, SVANidhi Yojana, all of which, have benefited the small households and people who want to do their business and who don’t have money to give for collateral; no properties to give.