The Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman presented the budget for the financial year 2024-25 on 23 July 2024. While the budget was presented to achieve the Viksit Bharat agenda of the Bharatiya Janata Party-led NDA government, members and supporters of the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam in Tamil Nadu questioned why Tamil Nadu did not feature in their agenda.
Dravidianist mouthpieces like The News Minute’s Shabbir Ahmed posted a misleading comment on his X handle. He mocked the budget for not “including/having anything for T.N.” The schemes and initiatives mentioned above are for women, the poor, farmers, tribals, and the youth. Netizens differed, asking whether this section of people was unavailable in Tamil Nadu.
Not found! #BudgetDay #Budget2024 pic.twitter.com/e2bFdCnx6M
— Shabbir Ahmed (@Ahmedshabbir20) July 23, 2024
By Shabbir’s logic, if one searched for Kerala, Karnataka, UP, or M.P., one would not find any results. The budget is presented for the country as a whole and not per state.
Applying the same logic to the budget presented by the Tamil Nadu government earlier this year, 27 districts out of a total of 38 districts in Tamil Nadu are not named in the document. So have these 27 districts of the state been ignored by the government?
These districts include Ariyalur, Chengalpattu, Cuddalore, Dharmapuri, Erode, Kalakurichi, Kanchipuram, Karur, Madurai, Mayiladuthurai, Nagapattinam, Kanyakumari, Pudukottai, Ramanathapuram, Ranipet, Tenkasi, Thanjavur, Theni, Thiruvallur, Tiruvarur, Tiruvannamalai, Tirunelveli, Tirupattur, Tiruppur, Nilgiris, Vellore and Villupuram. None of these names appears in the budget document presented by the TN Finance Minister.
27 மாவட்டங்களை புறக்கணித்த திமுக?#chanakyaa #rangarajpandey #dmk #Budget #CentralGovt #bjp #modi #NirmalaSitharaman #UnionBudget2024 #MKStalin
Stay informed with the latest news through Chanakyaa via https://t.co/sbYbLDGPqW pic.twitter.com/pAO2keCAPh— சாணக்யா (@ChanakyaaTv) July 24, 2024
Netizens questioned if this was the infamous “Dravidian Model” of governance.
What is this ? This isDravidianmodelgovt ? @mkstalin @CMOTamilnadu @arivalayam @DMKITwing @BJP4TamilNadu @draramadoss @ProfessorBJP @asuvathaman @KolahalasTV https://t.co/k6hEdMJWzs
— D.A.SRIDHAR (@ASRIDHAR_DKV) July 24, 2024
Additionally, BJP leader H Raja noted that “Tamil Nadu was not mentioned in 6 of the 10 budgets presented during the UPA era – 2004-20014 period. So is the Congress DMK alliance an anti-Tamil Nadu alliance?”
UPA அரசு இருந்த 2004-20014 காலகட்டத்தில் சமர்பிக்கப்பட்ட 10 பட்ஜெட்களில் 6 ல் தமிழகத்தின் பெயர் குறிப்பிடப்படவில்லை. எனவே காங்கிரஸ் திமுக கூட்டணி தமிழக விரோத கூட்டணி. @CMOTamilnadu @BJP4TamilNadu https://t.co/3L8eACmMeW
— H Raja (@HRajaBJP) July 24, 2024
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