A discussion on the 2026-27 ‘Kartavya Budget’ finally got underway after days of logjam between the Treasury and Opposition benches in the Lok Sabha on Tuesday. The Opposition leaders also targeted the Centre over the implications of the India-US trade deal.
Leading the Opposition’s charge, senior Congress leader Shashi Tharoor termed the Budget a “squandered opportunity”.
Stating that the Budget announcements had “glossy schemes, utopian projections” that might soothe the imagination, Tharoor said it left the everyday lives of the ordinary citizen of India “unchanged”.
“It ignores unemployment, rising living costs, and indeed ignores inequality, offering little to address the real struggles and aspirations of the aam aadmi…Capital expenditure is emphasised, yet weak demand, stagnant wages, high youth unemployment, compressed welfare spending, and inadequate devolution to states, all persist…This is why, Mr Chairman, this is what I call an underwhelming budget,” Tharoor said. He said that at a time when farmer distress was deepening, the Budget was silent on revising the PM Kisan Nidhi disbursement.
Underscoring that while rural unemployment has stagnated at 3.9%, urban unemployment continues to rise, ending at 6.7% in December last year, the Congress leader said the Budget was silent on gig workers who were the backbone of India’s “new economy”.
Tharoor said the India-U.S. trade deal looked less like a free trade agreement and more of a “pre-committed purchase agreement that overturns every principle of reciprocity”.
Story continues below this ad
“How can you speak of a reciprocal tariff of 18% on one side and 0% on the other? At a time when India’s total bilateral trade with the US stands at roughly $130 billion and we have a trade surplus of only $45 billion, we have surprisingly promised to buy $500 million worth of American goods over five years. This effectively converts a surplus into a long-term deficit by executive assurance, rather than by market demand,” he said.
No major economy, Tharoor said, has “ever neutralised its own trade leverage in this manner”. India has “voluntarily surrendered its negotiating power without securing proportional market access”, or policy space in return, he said.
Reciting a couplet by Mirza Ghalib — Humko malum hai jannat ki haqiqat lekin, dil ke behlane ko Ghalib yeh khayal accha hai — Tharoor said, “We know the reality behind these claims, these narratives, the modern governance, but they’re not policies granted in outcomes, they’re carefully curated illusions.”
Agreeing with the statistics submitted, as well as the couplet quoted by Tharoor, SP chief Akhilesh Yadav termed the budget “directionless and devoid of any vision towards the realisation of Viksit Bharat @ 2047”.
Story continues below this ad
“This Budget does not have anything for the PDA (Picchda-Dalit-Adivasi communities)…it seems like the government has stopped thinking about them altogether…I see no special scheme for Uttar Pradesh to connect its 25 crore people to the mainstream,” he alleged. On the India-US trade deal, Yadav said it was “not a deal but a dheel (ceding space).”
TMC MP Abhishek Banerjee alleged the Budget “does not heal the economy but curates headlines”. He questioned its “silence” on the poll-bound state of West Bengal. “This is a budget that rewards those who can avoid taxes through privilege, and punishes those who pay them honestly through compulsion,” he said.
“The Finance Minister’s speech was of 85 minutes; Bengal was not mentioned even once…The Constitution promises equality among states; but this government practises preference. Allies are funded, while opponents are starved…”
he said.
On the trade deal with the US, Banerjee said, “The government has announced a trade deal with the United States that will open Indian markets to heavily subsidised American farm produce. The deal may benefit American farmers, but it will depress prices, destroy competitiveness and further marginalise Indian farmers who struggle without MSP
protection.”
