PM Narendra Modi has passed budget test with flying colours: Rajnath

New Delhi: Terming the Union Budget 2016-17 as "excellent", Home Minister Rajnath Singh on Monday said it outlines the priorities of the NDA government and the vision of Prime Minister Narendra Modi who passed the budget test with "flying colours".

His ministerial colleague Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi said the budget was the "practical vision document" of the Modi government's commitment to empowerment of villages, farmers, women, youth and the poor.

"If the Union Budget were like annual exams for our Prime Minister, then I must say he has passed the exams with flying colours," Singh said.

Congratulating Finance Minister Arun Jaitley on presenting an "excellent" budget, the Home Minister said it was a "pro-farmer, pro-poor and pro-reform budget".

"The budget has certainly outperformed people's expectations on almost all fronts and it will have a multiplier effect on our economy," he said.

Singh said the budget gives the government an opportunity to deepen the economic foundation and widen the infrastructure network. "Strengthening rural economy and providing income security to the farmers have been given top priority in this year's budget," he said.

In his monthly radio programme 'Mann Ki Baat' yesterday, Modi, while giving a pet talk to students, said they should appear for exams with a "positive approach" having free and calm mind without any anxiety. In this context, Modi had referred to budget presentation and said, "Friends, your exams are starting. I too have exam tomorrow. The country's 125 crore people are going to test me."

Describing it as a "perfect, progressive and prosperous people's budget", Naqvi said it is a "mirror" of the economy which is based on commitment to transparency and development and a system free from "power brokers and middlemen".

"Indian economy is safe and strong even amid a global economic slowdown only due to lockout and blockade of 'loot lobby' by the Modi government. Each and every paisa of public money is dedicated to the welfare of the poor, needy, weaker sections, farmers, labourers and the youth.

"This atmosphere of trust and development has sent those people into depression who considered loot of public money as their birth right. Such people are engaged in a destructive political propaganda over the nation's development," Union Minister of State for Parliamentary Affairs Naqvi said in a statement.