New Delhi: The Congress Sunday described the Union Funds as “blind to India’s actual crises”, accusing the federal government of ignoring the challenges flagged within the Financial Survey, flagging cuts in key social and growth spending.

“Youth with out jobs. Falling manufacturing. Traders pulling out capital. Family financial savings plummeting. Farmers in misery. Looming international shocks—all ignored. A Funds that refuses course correction, blind to India’s actual crises,” Lok Sabha Chief of Opposition Rahul Gandhi wrote on X.

Kharge mentioned, “The Modi authorities has run out of recent concepts. This Funds raises extra questions than it solutions relating to India’s vital financial, social, and political challenges. It presents nothing for the poor. They haven’t introduced any answer, constructive suggestion, or concrete steps to manage inflation.

The Congress chief added: “The Financial Survey signifies that commerce uncertainty is a significant problem for India, but the Funds barely acknowledges this downside. Equally, they don’t have any plan to handle the falling worth of the rupee… The Funds exhibits no intention of reviving shopper demand. The decline in home financial savings and the growing burden of private debt have additionally been ignored.”

“Inequality has surpassed the degrees seen through the British Raj. However the Funds doesn’t even point out it. Nor have they made any provision for help for Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes, Different Backward Courses, Economically Weaker Sections, or minorities,” Kharge added.

Addressing a press convention, former Union finance minister P. Chidambaram mentioned that the Funds speech had astonished “each pre-Funds commentator, author and scholar of economics”, arguing that the federal government appeared to have “discarded fully” the Financial Survey for 2025-26 launched on 29 February.

“If the federal government had learn the Financial Survey, it seems to have chosen to disregard it and fall again on its favorite pastime of throwing phrases, often acronyms, at individuals,” Chidambaram mentioned.

Chidambaram identified that the problems that didn’t determine within the Funds speech included the stress on exporters resulting from penal tariffs imposed by the US, extended international commerce conflicts weighing on funding, a rising commerce deficit with China, and low gross mounted capital formation of round 30 per cent reflecting non-public sector reluctance to speculate.

“Our verdict is that the Funds speech and the Funds fail the check of financial technique and financial statesmanship,” he mentioned.

He additionally flagged uncertainty over overseas direct funding inflows, persistent overseas portfolio funding outflows, the sluggish tempo of fiscal consolidation with continued excessive fiscal and income deficits in violation of FRBM (Fiscal Accountability and Funds Administration) targets, and a widening hole between official inflation figures and “family expenditure realities”.

On fiscal administration, Chidambaram mentioned that even by “an accountant’s requirements”, the federal government’s efficiency in 2025-26 was poor. He pointed to a shortfall of Rs 78,086 crore in income receipts and Rs 1,00,503 crore in complete expenditure, with income expenditure decrease by Rs 75,168 crore and capital expenditure reduce by Rs 1,44,376 crore. Of this, the Centre’s capital expenditure was lowered by Rs 25,335 crore and states’ capital expenditure by Rs 1,19,041 crore.

He mentioned that the Centre’s capital expenditure had fallen from 3.2 per cent of GDP in 2024-25 to three.1 per cent in 2025-26, with none clarification supplied within the Funds speech.

He additional alleged that cuts in income expenditure disproportionately affected sectors impacting peculiar residents together with rural growth, city growth, social welfare, agriculture, schooling and well being. He additionally flagged a pointy reduce in allocations for the Jal Jeevan Mission, from Rs 67,000 crore to Rs 17,000 crore in revised estimates.

“In 2026-27, it has been boosted to Rs 67,670 crore, however what credibility does the quantity have?” requested Chidambaram.

Congress chief Shashi Tharoor criticised the Union Funds for excluding Kerala from the brand new high-speed rail corridors introduced throughout India.

The announcement of seven new Excessive-Pace Rail Corridors throughout India is welcome for the nation, however the obtrusive exclusion of Kerala is indefensible. We’re a high-density state crying out for contemporary transit. The Centre ignores us, and the State proposes paper tasks it can’t…

— Shashi Tharoor (@ShashiTharoor) February 1, 2026

In a publish on X, Tharoor mentioned: “The announcement of seven new high-speed rail corridors throughout India is welcome for the nation, however the obtrusive exclusion of Kerala is indefensible. We’re a high-density state crying out for contemporary transit… We want precise trains, not new acronyms,” Tharoor added.

(Edited by Viny Mishra)

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