‘Disappointing, directionless, opaque, anti-poor, anti-farmer,’ Opposition tears into Budget

While Prime Minister Narendra Modi pitched the Union Budget 2026-27 as a reform-driven blueprint offering a clear roadmap for a developed India by 2047, opposition parties described it as “disappointing, directionless, lacklustre, opaque, anti-poor, anti-farmer.”

West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee went further, using a nursery rhyme to label it a “Humpty Dumpty budget.” “It is totally directionless, visionless, mission-less, actionless. It is a ‘Humpty-Dumpty Budget’, just jugglery of words, it is anti-women, anti-farmer, anti-education. The Centre wants to destroy the economic structure of the country,” Banerjee said.

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Calling the Budget “historic” and future-oriented, PM Modi highlighted that the government’s financial plan reflected the empowered presence of women and gave fresh momentum to India’s journey towards becoming the world’s third-largest economy. However, Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi described it as “blind” to India’s real crises. “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,” he said.

Opposition parties across the spectrum criticised Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman’s 2026-27 plan for its opaqueness on spending priorities and alleged bias against states ruled by non-BJP parties. The ruling DMK in Tamil Nadu said Sitharaman had given nothing to the state even in an election year, and that even experts were unable to discern the Budget’s objectives. “It does not have an aim or goal, and in short, it is directionless,” DMK leader Constantine Ravindra said.

Congress leader Jairam Ramesh also called the Budget “non-transparent.” “It is clear after 90 minutes that Budget 2026-27 falls woefully short of the hype that was generated about it. It was totally lacklustre. The speech was also non-transparent since it gave no idea whatsoever of budgetary allocations for key programmes and schemes,” he wrote on X.

Congress MP Shashi Tharoor, who is relatively favourable towards the BJP and PM Modi, criticised the lack of specifics, particularly for Kerala. Congress MPs from Kerala, Hibi Eden and Jebi Mather, accused the government of “avoiding and badly neglecting” the state. Left parties argued that the Budget ignored challenges facing the Indian economy and offered no relief to the poor, who are reeling under high inflation, stagnant income, and rising unemployment.

Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav questioned its relevance to ordinary citizens. “This Budget is beyond the understanding of the poor. How will you build a developed India without education?” he said. TMC’s Abhishek Banerjee noted that in 1 hour and 25 minutes of Sitharaman’s speech, Bengal was not mentioned even once. “Centre views Bengal as Bangladesh; otherwise, why was Bengal not mentioned even once? We had no expectations with this Budget. They knew that even if they spent money in Bengal, they wouldn’t win. So, from their perspective, they preferred not to spend any money on Bengal,” he said.