'Failed the test': Former Finance Minister P Chidambaram reacts to Union Budget 2026

P Chidambaram

While reacting to the Union Budget 2026-27 that Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman presented on Sunday, former Finance Minister P Chidambaram said that it "failed test of economic strategy, economic statesmanship".

"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 explain his miserable performance in revenue and expenditure," the senior Congress leader said while addressing a press conference.

Shortly after Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman presented the annual Budget, the Opposition mounted a sharp attack, accusing the government of overlooking core economic stresses such as joblessness and capital outflows, even as Sitharaman defended the NDA’s record as stable, reform-driven and growth-oriented.

In a post on X, Gandhi outlined what he described as the Budget’s blind spots — youth unemployment, weak manufacturing, capital flight by investors, falling household savings, farm distress and looming global shocks. He said the Budget “refuses course correction” and is “blind to India’s real cirses".

Congress general secretary, Communications, Jairam Ramesh said the speech given by Sitharaman was "non-transparent" as it gave no idea of the budgetary allocations for key programmes and schemes.

"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," Ramesh said in a post on X.

In another post in Hindi, Jairam Ramesh said, "It (Budget) turned out to be completely insipid."

Congress leader Priyanka Gandhi also played down expectations, saying "she did not have much hope from the Modi government's Budget".