‘Humpty Dumpty’ row: BJP, TMC spar over ‘largesse’

Kolkata: CM Mamata Banerjee's "Humpty Dumpty" barb at the Feb 1 Union Budget led to a Trinamool-BJP face-off in the Bengal assembly on Friday after BJP MLA and economist Ashok Lahiri borrowed the term to question the state's vote-on-account budget's largesse on schemes.

Lahiri claimed that the state's move — leading to an excessive revenue versus expenditure imbalance — was done with an eye on assembly polls due in a few months.


BJP MLAs later staged a walkout in protest.

State finance minister Chandrima Bhattacharya questioned BJP's "double standards" in criticising schemes in Bengal while copying them in states governed by the saffron party. "BJP criticised schemes like Lakshmir Bhandar and called it a dole. Later, they tried to implement these schemes in other states. However, schemes like Ladli Behna were not continued. In Bihar, beneficiaries received money only once. But in Bengal, these schemes are being continued over the years," she said.

Latching on to Lahiri's words, describing the state's vote-on-account budget as nothing but "Humpty Dumpty", Bhattacharya said: "I don't know whether, despite being an economist, Ashok Lahiri reads in Bengali and writes in English."

Reciting the nursery rhyme, she added: "You say that our govt failed to bring about any development in the last 15 years and that we presented a Humpty Dumpty budget. By saying so, you misled the House."

"We have to keep in mind that India is a welfare state and people's money should go back to them. At the micro level, that boosts the economy by increasing people's purchasing power," Bhattacharya said, pointing out that a total of 1.7 crore people were pulled out of the below-poverty level in the last 15 years.

In the middle of Bhattacharya's speech, BJP legislators, led by leader of the opposition Suvendu Adhikari, left the House, raising slogans claiming that she insulted Lahiri's reputation and standing. Slogans like "shame, shame" and "won't tolerate insult to Bengalis" filled the air of the assembly portico where the BJP MLAs continued their protest.

Speaking to reporters after the House ruckus, Lahiri said: "Well-scripted sarcasms are always welcome in parliamentary democracy. But here, they stoop to levels of casting slurs and meting out personal attacks instead of indulging in substantive and meaningful discussions. They were made in poor taste and were indecent and uncivilised."

Lahiri alleged that Bhattacharya resorted to irrelevant and unwarranted attacks after he sought details of welfare schemes announced in the interim budget.

"I referred to the 94 state-run schemes and asked the govt for details. The House must know the source of funds for these schemes, their structure and how the state plans to stop embezzlement of that money. If they claim to work for ‘ma-mati-manush', then why not elaborate," the economist said.

Adhikari said he asked Lahiri to contest the state polls in 2021, and was sorry for his predicament. "The govt won't apologise for what it said, but as a senior member of this House, I tender my apology to you for the ignominy you suffered," he said. "They dislike him since he exposed the hollowness of the budget and uncovered how this govt destroyed the state's economy," he said.

(Written with agency inputs)