What kind of vishwa-guru are we, without a single student: Congress MP Rajeev Shukla
Congress MP Rajeev Shukla says that there is not one thing to praise in the budget this year. He asks that a supplementary or a revised budget be released because the deal with the U.S was announced after the presentation of the budget. This deal envisages compulsory buying of $500 billion, he points out.
The truth is that tariffs were below 3% during Manmohan Singh’s time, he says, adding that it was also 3% during Atal Bihari Vajpayee’s time. I have been told to consider it a positive that Trump has reduced the tariff from 25% to 18%, since Trump has changed since his first administration, he says. But what of the friendship you built with Trump before, he asks. He highlights that the tariff on India is at 18% while ours on U.S is at 0%, and there is an additional threat that if you buy Russian oil, we will increase the tariffs. Tariffs on developed countries are like 10% on England, 15% on Japan and Korea, he says, adding that while the standards are different for developed countries, we can definitely not say that we got the best deal. Economists have said that it is a deal which benefits the U.S, says Mr. Shukla. He says that we need to consider the impact on the textile and garment industry, as well as added costs if we have to buy oil from Venezuela.
We say that India is a vishwa-guru. A guru is one who has students, we have opened an ashram and we don’t have admissions, he says. In this war that happened, did even one country support us, he asks, noting that China stood with Pakistan, America invited Pakistan’s general to lunch, Turkey is giving drones, Saudi Arabia is doing a defence deal, Azerbaijan is standing with them. But not even one country, even a neigbour, was with us, so who is this guru who doesn’t even have one student, what India have you created, he asks.
He also raises the issue of Bangladesh, saying that it was created after a fight, but now it is being pushed towards to Pakistan. The ICC is doing a better job than our foreign ministry, he says.
