“This Budget is pro-village, pro-poor, pro-farmer. The main focus is to bringing about qualitative change in the country. There will be a big change in the lives of common people. Several steps have been taken for the farmers. The most important is Pradhan Mantri Krishi Yojana.”

– Narendra Modi, Prime Minister of india

“The thrust of the budget is towards strengthening rural and agriculture sectors and boosting employment-generation…. There is a lot of focus on agriculture. There is a proposal to double farmers’ income by 2022. Families will get health insurance of Rs 1 lakh for free. This is a big step…. More than Rs 2000 crore will be spent on giving LPG connection to 1.5 crore families and it will help rural women in a big way.”

– Amit Shah, BJP president

“Unfortunately, what was needed to be done has not been done. Biggest challenge which we face today is in employment and agriculture sectors. There is not anything on that.”

– Kamal Nath,Congress leader

“The government has painted a very broad and general picture and it has to be seen how everything works out in practice.”

– Shashi Tharoor, Congress MP

“In totality it is going to shrink the economy. Markets have given the budget a thumbsdown.”

– Manish Tewari, Congress leader

“Modi govt walks the talk. Thank you Modiji and Arun Jaitley ji for giving a visionary budget in difficult times. Congrats for changing direction of budget speech from small geographic & sectoral announcement to broad focus plan. The social sector spending is not only increased but planned in targeted direction to ensure the quality of expenditure and outcome. The huge infra spending will create jobs and fuel growth while target of doubling farm income will change the future of the nation.”

– Devendra Fadnavis, Maharashtra CM

“The budget is for everybody. Budget has been provided for infrastructure like ports, rail, airports. In the health sector, for poor people, upto Rs one lakh cost of hospitalisation will be borne by the government. This is a progressive and visionary budget.”

– Prakash Javadekar, Union Minister

“India is a country where agriculture holds a prime place but it is after years that this has been reflected in a budget which gives priority to farmers as well as weaker sections. This budget is one which will also lead to empowerment of the youth.”

– Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi, Union Minister

“It is good that the budget has focussed on real areas, noting that at the same time it also has many things for the corporates. The overall philosophy has to take something from the super-rich for the benefit of the poor which is alright. Finance Minister has maintained fiscal discipline while also making provisions for measures like Pay Commission, OROP and road and transport investment. By these measures, the boost which we wanted in the economy will be possible.”

– Yashwant Sinha, BJP leader

“There is no relief for the common people in the budget. However, relief has been given to industrialists. The long-pending demand of waiving farmers loan has also not been considered. They criticised MNREGA and Aadhaar. The UPA government gave Rs 40,000 crore to MNREGA. This (the budget allocation) is not a big thing. If you compare the wages that have increased, then it is important. It is not important how much total allocation has increased. If it was Rs 100 a day, then we gave Rs 40,000 crore. Today the wages have become Rs 150. This is natural that the man-days will be reduced. You are seeing only the money part, but not the physical part.”

– Mallikarjun Kharge, Congress leader

“This is not a populist budget and that’s not easy because the global scenario has been difficult. Fiscal deficit is important because that is the single most important factor due to which the country rating is determined. When Moody and other research and rating companies rate the country, they look at the fiscal deficit. And that impacts inflation, rupee exchange rate, so that I think takes a lot of courage. From macro-economic point of view, this is a big step. All the massive allotments made for rural infrastructure, irrigation and farm sector as well as national infrastructure, cutting of red tape are growth oriented. I think it’s a good sign.”

– Baijayant Panda, BJD leader

“The budget is development-oriented. It is in the interest of poor, farmers, and youth. There is special focus on agriculture, infrastructure, rural development, education and social sectors.”

– Ram Vilas Paswan, LJP leader

“It is a common man’s budget as all the priorities have been included to cater to the needs of the ‘aam aadmi’. It is the budget of the farmers. It will give impetus to socio-economic developmentand will prove to be a historic budget in the days to come.”

– Raman Singh, Chhattisgarh CM

“As with the previous two budgets, this budget of the Modi govt is again full of hollow promises and slogans. The numbers just don’t add up. FM says Budget is about fulfilling
‘desires & dreams’ but it has no vision. The dead certainty from it is of a shrinking economy. Increasing cess hurts the common man, with indirect tax collections proposed to be up by Rs 20,600 cr. Direct tax proposals are down by Rs 1,060 cr. This means more burden on common people as indirect taxes are inflationary. So there will be no expansion in domestic demand.”

– Sitaram Yechury, CPI-M general secretary

“The budget has nothing for farmers in distress who are are committing suicides. Farmers are reeling under huge debt. Loans of industrialists have been waived but not that of farmers. Nothing for middle class in this budget. Modi govt cheated middle class which votes for them. BJP vowed to bring back black money through enforcement, not through amnesty schemes. This is what Chidambaram also did. What is the difference? There’s nothing for the treatment of farmers.”

– Arvind Kejriwal, Delhi CM

“It’s a pro-poor, pro-farmer, welfare and growth-oriented budget. The Budget will surely help de-stress the distressed rural sector. The proposals to set apart Rs 9 lakh crore for farm credit; Rs 5,500 crore for crop insurance scheme; dedicated irrigation fund worth Rs 20,000 crore under NABARD; highest ever compensation in case of crop loss under the “Prime Minister Fasal Bima Yojana” and allocation of Rs 412 crore for encouraging organic farming would open new opportunities for the farmers.”

– Manohar Lal Khattar, Haryana CM