Union Budget exposes Centre’s growing hostility towards federal principles: CPI MP

The Communist Party of India has slammed the Union Budget 2026-27, stating that it chooses to look away from people’s hardships while concentrating power and resources in fewer hands.

CPI Rajya Sabha MP P Sandosh Kumar said the common man is struggling with falling real incomes, rising unemployment, and mounting uncertainty, yet the government has made no serious attempt to revive demand or expand public spending where it matters the most, in the Budget proposals.

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The MP pointed out that while the Economic Survey tabled by the government has also highlighted that it is consumption that is sustaining growth, yet the Finance Minister in her Budget proposals has neither strengthened rural purchasing power nor offered any tangible relief to salaried employees and middle-income households.

“With social sector allocations quietly diluted and no fresh stimulus for urban workers, the economy is left to drift. Agriculture continues to be treated with indifference. Farmers have repeatedly demanded a statutory minimum support price to stabilise incomes and shield them from market volatility. The Budget avoids this issue altogether, exposing the government’s unwillingness to intervene in favour of cultivators. At the same time, working people are protesting against the four labour codes that weaken job security and social protection, but the Budget chooses silence over dialogue,” he said.

“Public health, education, and employment generation remain grossly underfunded. 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 added.

Sandosh Kumar particularly highlighted the Budget proposals regarding states, alleging these expose the Centre’s growing hostility towards federal principles.

“States are no longer treated as partners in development. They are expected to manage crises without resources, while the Centre tightens its grip on finances,” he said. “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 said regarding Kerala.