New Delhi: The Congress Sunday described the Union Budget as “blind to India’s real crises”, accusing the government of ignoring the challenges flagged in the Economic Survey, flagging cuts in key social and development spending.
“Youth without jobs. Falling manufacturing. Investors pulling out capital. Household savings plummeting. Farmers in distress. Looming global shocks—all ignored. A Budget that refuses course correction, blind to India’s real crises,” Lok Sabha Leader of Opposition Rahul Gandhi wrote on X.
Congress President and Leader of Opposition in the Rajya Sabha Mallikarjun Kharge alleged that the Centre had failed to address key economic challenges facing the country, offered no relief to vulnerable sections of society, and no solution to unemployment.
Kharge said, “The Modi government has run out of new ideas. This Budget raises more questions than it answers regarding India’s significant economic, social, and political challenges. It offers nothing for the poor. They have not presented any solution, positive suggestion, or concrete steps to control inflation.
The Congress leader added: “The Economic Survey indicates that trade uncertainty is a major challenge for India, yet the Budget barely acknowledges this problem. Similarly, they have no plan to address the falling value of the rupee… The Budget shows no intention of reviving consumer demand. The decline in domestic savings and the increasing burden of personal debt have also been ignored.”
“Inequality has surpassed the levels seen during the British Raj. But the Budget doesn’t even mention it. Nor have they made any provision for assistance for Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes, Other Backward Classes, Economically Weaker Sections, or minorities,” Kharge added.
Addressing a press conference, former Union finance minister P. Chidambaram said that the Budget speech had astonished “every pre-Budget commentator, writer and student of economics”, arguing that the government appeared to have “discarded completely” the Economic Survey for 2025-26 released on 29 February.
“If the government had read the Economic Survey, it appears to have chosen to ignore it and fall back on its favourite pastime of throwing words, usually acronyms, at people,” Chidambaram said.
Chidambaram pointed out that the issues that did not figure in the Budget speech included the stress on exporters due to penal tariffs imposed by the United States, prolonged global trade conflicts weighing on investment, a growing trade deficit with China, and low gross fixed capital formation of around 30 per cent reflecting private sector reluctance to invest.
“Our verdict is that the Budget speech and the Budget fail the test of economic strategy and economic statesmanship,” he said.
He also flagged uncertainty over foreign direct investment inflows, persistent foreign portfolio investment outflows, the slow pace of fiscal consolidation with continued high fiscal and revenue deficits in violation of FRBM (Fiscal Responsibility and Budget Management) targets, and a widening gap between official inflation figures and “household expenditure realities”.
On fiscal management, Chidambaram said that even by “an accountant’s standards”, the government’s performance in 2025-26 was poor. He pointed to a shortfall of Rs 78,086 crore in revenue receipts and Rs 1,00,503 crore in total expenditure, with revenue expenditure lower by Rs 75,168 crore and capital expenditure cut by Rs 1,44,376 crore. Of this, the Centre’s capital expenditure was reduced by Rs 25,335 crore and states’ capital expenditure by Rs 1,19,041 crore.
He said that the Centre’s capital expenditure had fallen from 3.2 per cent of GDP in 2024-25 to 3.1 per cent in 2025-26, without any explanation offered in the Budget speech.
He further alleged that cuts in revenue expenditure disproportionately affected sectors impacting ordinary citizens including rural development, urban development, social welfare, agriculture, education and health. He also flagged a sharp cut in allocations for the Jal Jeevan Mission, from Rs 67,000 crore to Rs 17,000 crore in revised estimates.
“In 2026-27, it has been boosted to Rs 67,670 crore, but what credibility does the number have?” asked Chidambaram.
Congress leader Shashi Tharoor criticised the Union Budget for excluding Kerala from the new high-speed rail corridors announced across India.
The announcement of 7 new High-Speed Rail Corridors across India is welcome for the nation, but the glaring exclusion of Kerala is indefensible. We are a high-density state crying out for modern transit. The Centre ignores us, and the State proposes paper projects it cannot…
— Shashi Tharoor (@ShashiTharoor) February 1, 2026
In a post on X, Tharoor said: “The announcement of seven new high-speed rail corridors across India is welcome for the nation, but the glaring exclusion of Kerala is indefensible. We are a high-density state crying out for modern transit… We need actual trains, not new acronyms,” Tharoor added.
(Edited by Viny Mishra)
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