The Congress on Sunday mounted a sharp attack on the Union Budget 2026–27, accusing the Modi government of ignoring India’s mounting economic distress and offering no course correction on jobs, manufacturing, inflation, inequality and falling household savings.
Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi said the Budget had failed to address what he described as India’s “real crises”, including unemployment, declining manufacturing output, investor pullouts and rural distress.
“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,” Gandhi said in a post on X after Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman presented her ninth consecutive Budget in Parliament.
Congress president and Leader of the Opposition in the Rajya Sabha Mallikarjun Kharge echoed the criticism, alleging that the Budget lacked policy vision and political will to tackle economic and social challenges. “The Modi government has run out of new ideas. This Budget raises more questions than it answers. It offers nothing for the poor,” Kharge said.
He alleged that key concerns such as inflation, unemployment, declining savings and rising inequality had been ignored. “There is no solution, positive suggestion or concrete step to control inflation. Weakening domestic demand continues to be ignored,” Kharge added.
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Senior Congress leader Jairam Ramesh described the Budget as “totally lacklustre”, saying the speech offered little clarity on allocations for major schemes. “It is clear after 90 minutes that Budget 2026–27 falls woefully short of the hype that was generated about it,” he said.
Kharge also questioned the government’s economic priorities, alleging that inequality had worsened sharply. “Inequality has surpassed the levels seen during the British Raj, but the Budget does not even mention it, nor does it provide support to SC, ST, OBC, EWS and minority communities,” he said.
Listing sector-wise gaps, Kharge said manufacturing remained stuck at around 13 per cent with no revival strategy, while there was no serious plan to address youth unemployment or boost women’s workforce participation. He also flagged the absence of measures to revive exports, arrest the rupee’s slide, or restore private investment confidence.
On federal finances, the Congress president said the Finance Commission’s recommendations appeared to offer little relief to states facing fiscal stress, claiming that “federalism has become a casualty”.
The criticism came even as the government highlighted proposals on infrastructure, including high-speed rail corridors, freight corridors and national waterways, and pitched the Budget as growth-oriented. The Congress, however, maintained that the proposals failed to respond to the immediate economic pressures faced by households and workers.
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