'Woefully short of the hype': Congress slams 'completely hollow' Union Budget 2026

NEW DELHI: Congress MP Shashi Tharoor on Sunday launched a scathing attack on the Union Budget 2026–27, claiming the finance minister’s speech was "fairly short" and "lacking specifics". He said the budget offered little reassurance to the middle and lower-middle classes, further accusing the government of missing Kerala from the budget address.

Speaking to news agency PTI, Tharoor said, "I think, by recent years’ standards, it was a fairly short speech and seemed to have lots of subheadings but very few specifics. So it’s very difficult to know what to think. On the big-picture issues, there was nothing there for the middle class and the lower middle class. There was nothing there for the states."




He added, "In fact, fiscal devolution remains unchanged at 41 per cent, and many states do not have enough money to fulfil their own obligations to their citizens and voters. That has become a genuine concern."

Adding on to the claim, he further highlighted Kerala being missed out of the infrastructure discussions and said, "We in Kerala, for example, have been waiting almost 15 years for an All India Institute of Medical Sciences. No announcement came. There was a reference to All India Institutes of Ayurveda being established, but no indication as to where. Kerala would imagine that, as a major centre of Ayurveda, it should be a logical place, but they haven’t promised us that. In fact, Kerala was only mentioned in the context of rare earths and the turtle trail."

He further expressed his disappointment saying, "I’m assuming that some of these subheadings she spoke about will translate into concrete projects and programmes for us. Cashews are important, fisheries are important, but where details came, we had reason for disappointment."

Ahead of the budget speech, Tharoor had pointed to the approaching assembly elections in Kerala and expressed his expectations for his Lok Sabha constituency. Tharoor said, "We in Kerala, with an election coming up, are looking to see what benefits the Central government might give us."

The party further stepped up the attack as Congress leader Jairam Ramesh criticised the Union Budget, calling it "insipid and lacklustre". Accusing the budget speech of failing to meet the hype, the Congress leader called it non-transparent in terms of allocations for key programmes and schemes.

In a post shared immediately after the budget speech ended, the Congress leader wrote on X, "While the documents need to be studied in detail, it is clear after 90 mins that Budget 2026/27 falls woefully short of the hype that was generated about it."

He further wrote, "It was totally lacklustre. The speech was also non-transparent since it gave no idea whatsoever of budgetary allocations for key programmes and schemes."
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