'False, outrageous': Chidambaram slams PM Modi's '15% budget for Muslims' remark

Senior Congress leader P Chidambaram on Thursday (May 16) termed “totally false” Prime Minister Narendra Modi's claim that the previous Congress government wanted to allocate 15 per cent of the budget for Muslims, and said the PM's statements have been “increasingly bizarre”.

Chidambaram said the prime minister claimed on Tuesday that if he played the Hindu-Muslim divide, he would not be fit to be in public life but the very next day, “he played his usual game of dividing Hindus and Muslims”.

“Hon'ble Prime Minister's statements are increasingly bizarre and show that his speech writers have lost their balance,” the Congress leader said in a post on X.

“The Hon'ble PM's accusation that Dr Manmohan Singh had drawn up a plan to spend 15 per cent of the Union Budget exclusively on Muslims is totally false. His further allegation that Congress will present a Muslim budget and a Hindu budget is so outrageous that it can be only characterised as a hallucination,” the former finance minister said.

Article 112 of the Constitution of India contemplates only one Annual Financial statement, which is the Union Budget, Chidambaram said and asked how can there be two budgets.

“In the remaining days of the election campaign, it is my fervent hope that the Hon'ble PM will abandon the path of false accusations and outrageous claims,” he said.

“Not only the Indian people, the world is watching and analysing the Indian prime minister's statements, and they do not bring glory to India,” Chidambaram said.

Prime Minister Modi had earlier alleged that the Congress during its previous rule wanted to allocate 15 per cent of the government budget for Muslims, and vowed not to allow splitting of the budget or reservation in jobs and education on the basis of religion.

Addressing an election rally at Pimpalgaon Baswant in north Maharashtra's Nashik district, the PM said splitting the budget on religious lines was dangerous.

(With agency inputs)