Former captain Azhar Ali has expressed deep dismay over the ongoing crisis in Pakistan cricket following the team making wholesale changes to its squad on the ongoing Test tour of England, adding that the side has become consistent in the most negative way. Azhar's scathing assessment comes in the wake of severe fallout after heavy defeats at Headingley and Lord's, which saw head coach Sarfaraz Ahmed and bowling coach Umar Gul being relieved of their duties and seven players sent home. The turmoil has drawn widespread criticism, with Shahid Afridi calling it ‘the most shocking decision ever' and Misbah-ul-Haq resigning as a selector in protest. "People used to say you could expect anything from Pakistan – that any team could turn up on any given day and either be 46 all out or win from nowhere. But we don't even do that inconsistency any more. We've become totally consistent – in the most negative way. “Cricket in Pakistan needs proper care and a vision tha...
Calling the Union Budget 2024-25 "discriminatory" and "dangerous", the Congress on Tuesday evening announced that the party's Chief Ministers -- Siddaramaiah (Karnataka), Revanth Reddy (Telangana), and Sukhvinder Sukhu (Himachal Pradesh) -- will not attend the Niti Aayog Governing Council meeting scheduled in the national capital on July 27.
Tamil Nadu Chief Minister and DMK chief MK Stalin too has said that he would boycott the NITI Aayog meeting to be chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on July 27 as a mark of protest.
"The Union Budget presented today was extremely discriminatory and dangerous, which completely goes against the principles of federalism and fairness that the Union government must follow. In protest, INC CMs will be boycotting the NITI Aayog meeting scheduled for 27th July," Congress General Secretary (Organisation), KC Venugopal said in a post on X.
"This government's attitude is completely antithetical to Constitutional principles. We will not participate in an event that is solely designed to hide the true, discriminatory colours of this regime," he added.
Earlier in the day, Finance Minister Niramala Sitharaman announced a slew of measures during her 80-minute Budget speech, including a hike in standard deduction in the new tax regime from Rs 50,000 to Rs 75,000, revisions to tax slabs in the new regime, cut in Customs duty on gold and silver, three schemes under employment-linked incentives, and Rs 2 lakh crore for job creation, among others.
However, the Congress took a jibe at the Centre soon after the announcements, calling them nothing but a "Sarkar Bachao" Budget driven by the political compulsions for the survival of this "lame duck" government.
Taking to X, Mr Venugopal said, "The Budget will do nothing to address inflation or solve the farmers' crisis. It has absolutely nothing for the middle classes. Much like the 10 (previous) Budgets, this Union Budget is also far removed from the concerns of the ordinary Indian."
"While the government has belatedly recognised that job creation is the need of the hour, its so-called announcements are totally insincere and non-serious. They could not even properly copy from our Nyay Patra."
According to Mr Venugopal, merely throwing large headline numbers while giving pittances in reality is nothing but a cruel joke on the future of India's youth.
"Every segment of the Indian society is going to be in an even worse situation after this Budget, and this government that is completely cut off from the pain of the people will simply be concerned about its survival," he said.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
from NDTV News- Special https://ift.tt/UeM3yrf
Comments
Post a Comment