Parliament in session: Nation facing agri crisis, workers forced to accept minimum wages: MP Tewari

Chandigarh Congress MP Manish Tewari warned in Parliament on Monday that India is allegedly facing a major agrarian crisis, with many workers forced to accept minimum wages, while the Union Budget 2025-26 has “crushed” the aspirations of the common man.

During a discussion on the Budget in the Lok Sabha, Tewari attacked the Centre over the rupee’s depreciation against the US dollar under the Narendra Modi-led NDA, noting that the decline over the past decade has been sharper than during the previous UPA regime. He compared key economic indicators between the 2013-14 fiscal year, when the UPA was in power, and the current 2024-25 financial year. Tewari highlighted rising unemployment, a falling share of manufacturing in GDP, a declining investment-to-GDP ratio and increasing prices of essentials.

“The only big idea of the NDA government in the last 10 years was demonetisation,” Tewari said. He recalled that while Rs 16.99 lakh crore was withdrawn from circulation during demonetisation, Rs 35.99 lakh crore remains in circulation as of January 24, 2025 — a move he sarcastically hailed as one of the government’s “biggest achievements.”

Tewari pointed out that although the agricultural sector grew at 5 per cent between 2017 and 2022, its growth rate fell to 1.4 per cent in 2022-23. Meanwhile, Congress leader and ex- Finance Minister P Chidambaram termed the Budget as a “politically-driven” exercise and said it was designed to influence voters in Delhi. Initiating the discussion on the Budget in the RS, Chidambaram criticised Finance Minister Sitharaman for allegedly improving the fiscal deficit by slashing capital expenditure and grants-in-aid to states, calling it “bad economics”.