New Delhi, Feb 1 (PTI) Left parties on Sunday called the Union Budget “anti-people, anti-federal”, and accused the Centre of promoting interests of the wealthy at the cost of the common people.
In a statement issued here, the Communist Party of India (Marxist) said that compared to the Budget estimates of 2025-26, expenditures have been drastically reduced under several central and centrally sponsored schemes.
The Rasthriya Krishi Vikas Yojana, PM POSHAN, Prime Minister’s Schools for Rising India (PM-SHRI), Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana (PM-JAY), Pradhan Mantri Matsya Sampada Yojana (PM-MSY), Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana (PMAY – rural and urban), and the crop insurance scheme have seen a reduction, while allocations for welfare of Scheduled Castes, Scheduled, Tribes, and North Eastern Areas have also experienced cuts, the party said.
“The ninth Union Budget presented by the finance minister in Parliament today was a stark testimony to the uncritical commitment of the Modi government to promoting the narrow interests of a few big business houses and the rich and the wealthy, at the cost of the working people and socially oppressed sections of society, as well as larger national economic interests,” its statement read.
It said the ‘fiscal discipline’ that Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman claimed as a credit for the government has always been another way of describing tax concessions to the corporate sector and the rich, while squeezing expenditures necessary for improving the conditions of the working people.
The Left party said that in 2025-26 — the financial year ending soon — tax revenue realisations have fallen far short of even the modest estimates made in the last year’s Budget. It alleged that the finance minister omitted mentioning the revenue implications of the tax proposals she announced.
“Meeting the objective of reducing the fiscal deficit in such circumstances, in 2025-26 and 2026-27, has to obviously rely on cutting expenditures, and a naked assault on peasants and workers is the way in which this is being achieved,” it said.
The CPI(M) said there has been a slashing of expenditures for agriculture and allied activities, rural development, education, health and social welfare. The gender budget has been slashed by Rs 51,144 crore, it added.
“In the coming year, 2026-27, further cuts are proposed in fertiliser, food and petroleum subsidies. This represents specially an attack on agriculture at a time when government data itself shows that the sector is facing a deflationary situation or a collapse of price realisations for the output produced,” it said.
“…The only stability has been in the distress of the working people marked by rampant unemployment and limited earnings from work, while ‘sustained growth’ has marked only the incomes and wealth of the rich and the corporate sector.
“It is this growing inequality that Budget 2026-27 is going to further promote and further aggravate the crisis that is afflicting the Indian economy. It is also a woefully inadequate response to the issues arising from what is happening in the world economy,” the CPI(M) said.
Communist Party of India (CPI) MP P Sandosh Kumar said the speech revealed a “deliberate political choice to look away from people’s hardships while concentrating power and resources in fewer hands”.
“The Budget arrives at a time when ordinary citizens are struggling with falling real incomes, rising unemployment and mounting uncertainty. Yet there is no serious attempt to revive demand or expand public spending where it matters the most,” he said in a statement.
Public health, education, and employment generation remain grossly underfunded, the MP said.
“Manufacturing, which should have been the backbone of a job-centred growth strategy, shows no signs of revival. Instead of building domestic capacities and strengthening public systems, the government persists with its push towards privatisation, aggravating inequality and exclusion,” he said.
Referring specifically to Kerala, he added, “Our state has been facing extraordinary fiscal stress due to repeated natural disasters and revenue shortfalls. We placed a clear demand for a special fiscal correction package before the Centre. It has been completely ignored.” He further said that while people are protesting against the four labour codes that weaken job security and social protection, the Budget “chooses silence over dialogue”.
The All India Forward Bloc called the Budget a “betrayal of people”, in a statement.
“At a time when the Indian economy is reeling under stagnation, unemployment, price rise and declining purchasing power of the masses, this Budget offers no concrete roadmap for recovery or inclusive growth,” it said.
“A careful reading between the lines of the Budget speech reveals that the Modi government has surrendered its economic sovereignty to external pressures, particularly from the United States under Donald Trump,” it added. PTI AO PRK PRK
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