Shashi Tharoor says Budget underwhelming, likens it to 'rearranging airbags on a crashing car'

Congress MP Shashi Tharoor on Tuesday launched a sharp critique on the Union Budget, describing it as “underwhelming” and a “squandered opportunity,” and likening it to rearranging airbags on a crashing car while assuring passengers that everything is under control.

Initiating the debate on the Budget in the Lok Sabha, Tharoor said the government’s rhetoric was not matched by delivery, quoting Mirza Ghalib’s famous couplet — “Dil ko khush rakhne ko yeh khayaal achcha hai” — to underline what he called the illusory comfort offered by the proposals.

“This is headline management — promises are loud, budgets are grand, but delivery is conspicuously absent,” Tharoor said, adding that the Budget had “landed with a thud” because of what it failed to address rather than what it announced.


He argued that behind claims of fiscal prudence lay a more troubling reality of a shrinking Indian state, driven not by choice but by compulsion. “Prudence without vision or fairness is hollow,” the Congress leader said, accusing the government of ignoring unemployment, rising living costs and widening inequality.

Targeting the agriculture sector, Tharoor said many announcements amounted to “promises without commitments,” comparing them to “modern courtships.” He recalled an earlier remark on the 2025 Finance Bill, saying it resembled a mechanic who admits he could not fix the brakes but made the horn louder instead.

Criticising poor implementation, Tharoor cited official data showing chronic under-utilisation of funds. Of over ₹5 lakh crore allocated to 53 major welfare and infrastructure schemes last year, only about 41 per cent was spent in the first nine months, he said. He pointed to low utilisation under schemes such as the Jal Jeevan Mission, PM Schools for Rising India and the Pradhan Mantri Anusuchit Jati Abhyuday Yojana.

“This is not governance but carefully curated illusion,” Tharoor said, claiming that glossy schemes and utopian projections had failed to change everyday life for ordinary citizens. He said unemployment continued to rise, wages remained stagnant and small businesses were burdened with compliance, while informal workers were pushed into greater insecurity.

On education and infrastructure, Tharoor said the government spoke of “Viksit Bharat” even as over 1.5 lakh schools functioned without electricity and key schemes such as UDAN faltered. “When vision is severed from reality, it ceases to be aspiration and becomes illusion,” he said.

He also flagged concerns over declining government expenditure as a share of GDP, stagnant revenue mobilisation and a growing tax burden on individuals despite rising corporate profits. While capital expenditure was being emphasised, weak demand, high youth unemployment and inadequate welfare spending persisted, leaving India “fiscally disciplined but developmentally constrained,” Tharoor said.

“This is why I call it an underwhelming Budget,” he added, asserting that a truly developed India could not be built on slogans but on delivery that reaches the last citizen.

(With inputs from PTI)