New Delhi: In a mixed reaction to the Budget, BJP (Bharatiya Janata Party) today (July 8, 2004) said it indicated a continuation of the policies and programmes of the NDA (National Democratic Alliance) Government while slamming the new proposals as "inflationary" which gave a "raw deal" to rural and urban India.

Addressing a joint press conference, BJP president M Venkaiah Naidu and former Finance Minister Yashwant Sinha said both the Economic Survey and the Budget of the UPA Government "vindicated" the 'India Shining' and 'Feel Good' campaign of the NDA Government and proved that the propaganda carried against it by Congress and Communists was "totally false".

"This Budget is carrying forward the programmes and policies our Government had implemented over the last six years. The taxation proposals have been borrowed straight from then Finance Minister Jaswant Singh's interim Budget such as the tonnage tax for shipping. He had also referred to exempting from income tax anyone with a taxable income of Rs one lakh," Sinha said.

"The Budget is a betrayal of the people by a Government which claims to be with the common man. It is inflationary, will ignite increase in prices and put additional burden on every section of the people. It is a Budget of deception and deceit which ignores all tall promises made in the Common Minimum Programme of the UPA," Naidu said.

Pooh-poohing Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's promise to give a new deal to rural India, he said, "it only gives a raw deal both to rural and urban India. The allocation amounts to the worst form of tokenism."