Chidambaram slams Union Budget 2026; flags job crisis, weakening rupee, more

P Chidambaram on Sunday launched a sharp critique of the Union Budget 2026–27, accusing Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman of glossing over the country's most pressing economic challenges such as unemployment, rupee depreciation and weak fiscal management.

Reacting soon after the Budget was presented in Parliament, Chidambaram said the speech failed to acknowledge what he described as the government’s “miserable performance” on both revenue mobilisation and expenditure control.

"Unemployment, depreciation of rupee, many other challenges were not addressed by the fin minister. Even by accountants' standards, it was a poor account of the management of the accounts. Not a word to explaint his miserable performance in revenue and expenditure," the senior Congress leader said while addressing a press conference.


However, the veteran politcian was not alone in voicing disappointment at the document presented by Sitharaman for a ninth consecutive time.

Earlier, LoP Rahul Gandhi echoed Chidambaram's concerns and described the Budget as “blind to India’s real crises”.

In a post on X, the 55-year-old party leader also accused the PM Modi-led central government of ignoring the deepening jobs crisis, farm distress and a slowdown in manufacturing activity.

"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 wrote in his post.

Adding to the chorus of criticism, Congress leader Shashi Tharoor used a cricketing metaphor to sum up his assessment of the Budget, saying the finance minister “seems to have missed the ball”.

Speaking to PTI, the former union minister said the Budget speech was heavy on subheadings but light on substance, and completely short of an overall vision.

“The biggest unanswered question remains jobs,” the Thiruvananthapuram MP said.

"On the big-picture issues, there was nothing that we could hear for the middle class and the lower middle class. There was nothing there for the states. In fact, fiscal devolution remains unchanged at 41 per cent, and many states have complained that they don't have enough to fulfil their own obligations to their citizens," Tharoor added.

Meanwhile, the grand old party's general secretary (communications) Jairam Ramesh described the Budget as “totally lacklustre” and non-transparent.

"While the documents need to be studied in detail, 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," he said, taking to X.