Statement

Thank you, Sir, for granting me the honour of voicing, on behalf of the Indian National Congress, my perspective on the Union Budget presented by the hon. Finance Minister, whom I am glad to see in the Chamber. 10.02.2026 1131 Last year, when I was standing in this very place, I had remarked that the 2025 Finance Bill reminded me of the garage mechanic who said, “I could not fix your brakes, so I made the horn louder”. Looking at the Budget this year, I am saddened to observe that though the horn has been muted, there has not been enough movement, for this Budget too appears to be a squandered opportunity, equivalent to rearranging the airbags on a crashing car, while assuring the passengers that the chassis is sturdy and they will feel better afterwards. This Budget is praised for prudence, but prudence without vision or fairness is hollow. It ignores unemployment, it ignores rising living costs, and it ignores inequality, offering little to address the real struggles and aspirations of the Aam Aadmi. The Government speaks endlessly of welfare, but its spending tells a very different story, behind flashy announcements like chronic underutilisation and administrative failure. Media reports show that of the over Rs.5 lakh crore budgeted for 53 major welfare and infrastructure schemes last year, barely 41 per cent was spent in the first nine months of the fiscal year. Take the Jal Jeevan Mission, allotted Rs.67,000 crore, it managed to spend an astonishingly low Rs.31 crore in nine months. The much-touted PM Schools for Rising India Scheme spent only Rs.473 crore out of Rs.7,500 crore. More shocking of all, the Pradhan Mantri Anusuchit Jaati Abhyudaya Yojana, meant for the socio-economic upliftment of the Scheduled Castes, utilised merely Rs.40 crore out of Rs.2,140 crore. This is not governance, Mr Chairman, this is headline management. 10.02.2026 1132 Where promises are loud, like that horn, budgets are grand, but delivery is conspicuously absent. The Budget this year has landed with a thud, not because of what it contains, but because of what it omits. Behind claims of fiscal prudence lie a more uncomfortable reality. The Indian State is shrinking, not by design, but by compulsion. Government expenditure as a share of GDP has declined over the past decade, briefly rising during the pandemic before reverting to close to the 2016 levels, driven by stagnant revenue mobilisation. Tax receipts have remained flat relative to GDP, disinvestment has underperformed, and non-tax revenues increasingly rely on extraordinary transfers such as Reserve Bank of India dividends, an unsustainable substitute for a stable revenue base. More troubling is the shift in the tax burden towards individuals, bearing a greater share of the tax burden than corporations, despite sharp post-pandemic profit growth. To elaborate further, in fiscal year 2017, corporate taxes were 3.2 per cent of GDP, and personal income tax was 2.3 per cent. In fiscal year 2017, that is 10 years later, they are projected to be 3.1 per cent for corporations and 3.7 per cent for personal income tax of individuals. So, your revenue is coming disproportionately from the individual taxpayers. Fiscal consolidation since COVID has been achieved largely through expenditure compression, presenting necessity as virtue and compulsion as choice. Within these constraints, the Government has relied on low-cost measures such as tax simplification and targeted incentives, but the Budget offers no credible medium-term framework linking spending to employment 10.02.2026 1133 and productivity. Capital expenditure is emphasised, yet weak demand, stagnant wages, high youth unemployment, compressed welfare spending, and inadequate devolution to States, all persist, leaving India fiscally disciplined but developmentally constrained, without the revenue capacity or strategic clarity to deliver real economic security for the aam aadmi. This is why, Mr. Chairman, this is what I call an underwhelming Budget. Let me look at specific sectors. M.S. Swaminathan had famously said, "If agriculture goes wrong, nothing else will have a chance to go right." This, I believe, is as good a starting point as any. Mr. Chairman, it is high time we stop treating agriculture as some issue that will sort itself out, because 46.1 per cent of India's workforce and 60 per cent of our population depend on agriculture and allied activities. Despite agriculture contributing 16 per cent to 17 per cent of GDP, it receives only three per cent of this Union Budget, 1.62 lakh crore, which is a 5.1 per cent cut from last year's 1.71 lakh crore. This underinvestment is all the more alarming, Mr. Chairman, given the existential threats facing Indian agriculture today. This sector, vital as it is, is increasingly threatened by climate change and misaligned farming practices. Nearly two-thirds of the country are prone to drought and the toll of weather-related disasters has been severe, yet the Fasal Bima Yojana, meant to protect farmers, has failed. Flawed assessments and opaque settlements have reduced compensation to token amounts – 1 rupee, 3 rupees, 21 rupees – as your Minister himself has acknowledged, turning protection into systemic injustice. Matters are worsened by cuts that 10.02.2026 1134 leave the scheme at its lowest budget allocation in eight years, fuelling fears that new initiatives will repeat a familiar cycle of announcement without commitment, as seen last year when grandly announced missions on cotton technology, pulses, vegetables, fruits, and hybrid seeds, all quietly faded, with zero funding in the revised estimates. These announcements are like modern courtships – promises without commitment. That is what this Government does to us. At a time when farm distress is deepening, the Budget's silence on revising the PM-Kisan Nidhi disbursement speaks louder than any promise made elsewhere. हमारे िकसानŌ कì आय दोगुनी करने का वायदा तो आपसे पूरा हो नहé पाया, कम से कम उनकì सÌमान िनिध ही बढ़ा दीिजए । िपछले छ: सालŌ से यह िसफª 6000 Łपये पर ही अटकì हòई है । While there is an imperative need for breakthroughs in research and development and AI-driven agricultural technologies, paradoxically, funding allocations for agricultural research and education have dipped by 4.8 per cent from the previous year's 10,466 crore. That is down to 9,967 crore, decreasing precisely when the Finance Minister is announcing new AI schemes. Frankly, Madam, touting a new AI app when the majority of our farmers cannot afford fertilisers, harvesters or tractors seems rather detached from reality, except of the virtual kind. This Budget speaks at length about crops from cashews to coconuts, yet ignores one of agriculture's most persistent concerns – pepper. Once hailed as black gold, the sector is now in distress in my State. In Kerala, which is one of 10.02.2026 1135 the country's leading producers of pepper, output has fallen from 40,000 plus tonnes to 30,000 tonnes, and is projected to decline by a further 28.7 per cent in the foreseeable future. The uncomfortable truth, Mr. Chairman, is that our spice market faces such deep challenges today that if history repeated itself, the British might not even bother looting us for it. Next, I turn to unemployment. This House has had this conversation far too many times. We recite the same statistics, express the same concerns, and then move on, while unemployment quietly worsens. The data at the end of 2025 makes one thing unmistakably clear. Rural unemployment has stagnated at 3.9 per cent, while urban unemployment continues to rise, ending at 6.7 per cent in December. However, the crisis is now starting to concentrate in our cities, where aspirations and frustrations are colliding. And yet, even the Centre’s flagship responses have failed to rise to the moment. Under the Pradhan Mantri Kaushal Vikas Yojana, barely 41 per cent of certified candidates secured placements. More than half of these jobs were concentrated in just five sectors. And of Rs. 1,380 crore released, Rs. 278 crore remained unutilised. The Prime Minister Internship Scheme tells a similar story. The allocation is Rs. 10,831 crore. The Ministry has spent only Rs. 526 crore in the first nine months. This pattern is recurrent. In the fiscal year 2025, allocations were cut after large unspent balances, with actual spending at just Rs. 680 crore. So much for creating employment, when we cannot even spend the money allocated for the purpose of creating employment. And what of gig workers, the backbone of our new economy? There is no mention of them in 10.02.2026 1136 this Budget. Their welfare has been deprioritised at a time when unrest is growing over the absence of clearly defined benefits, time-bound claims and appeals mechanisms, and mandatory disclosure of work hours, earnings, and deductions. This silence further weakens gig workers’ access to social security in practice. Any discourse on the workers of our country stands incomplete without a discussion on MGNREGA, now replaced by the ambitious VB-G RAM G Act. It increases guaranteed workdays from 100 to 125 and introduces weekly wage payments, but at the same time hollows out the legal employment guarantee. While MGNREGA was demand-driven, fully Centrally funded for unskilled wages, and rooted in decentralised planning, the new Act caps Central funding through State-wise normative allocations, shifts 40 per cent of wage costs to most States, and allows the scheme to be paused for up to 60 days during peak agricultural seasons, thereby shrinking the real window of guaranteed work. Once a State’s allocation is exhausted, workers’ statutory right to employment effectively ends. This converts an open-ended, rights-based programme into a budget-restricted, Centrally rationed scheme where fiscal ceilings override legal entitlements. The VB-G RAM G scheme has received a massive allocation of Rs. 95,000 crore in this Budget, yet it has a major, overlooked flaw that needs to be addressed as soon as possible, Madam Minister. It attempts inclusion but perhaps unintentionally drives technological exclusion. MGNREGA trusted panchayats and gram sabhas to plan work based on local needs and 10.02.2026 1137 community strengths, but the VB-G RAM G Act mandates dashboards with GIS tools, PM Gati Shakti layers, and central digital stacks. Local priorities are filtered through a Viksit Bharat National Rural Infrastructure stack, making biometrics, geotagging, dashboards, and AI audits statutory requirements. Thus, for millions of rural workers, a single technological failure can mean exclusion without appeal, and work without consideration of skills. When millions are struggling to find work, the least the Government can do is to ensure that they move freely across the country to seek opportunities. But here too, Mr. Chairman, we see a pattern of neglect that is as consistent as it is shameful. Nowhere is this neglect of connectivity clearer than in Kerala. Despite repeated demands for new railway lines to decongest existing routes, the State finds no mention in the Finance Minister’s much-touted seven high- speed railway corridor initiative. One is compelled to ask: does strategic connectivity end where political inconvenience begins? The consequences of this neglect are borne daily by passengers and railway staff alike in my State. Chronic overcrowding has pushed passenger capacity to dangerous limits. Sanitation has visibly deteriorated. Even basic facilities remain inadequate. It is telling, Mr. Chairman, that locomotive pilots, entrusted with the safety of thousands, are forced to work without assured access to toilets. For passengers, the experience is no better – overcrowded coaches, unsanitary conditions, and a steady erosion of dignity that no glossy brochure can conceal. These failures are structural, they are not incidental. The railways’ 10.02.2026 1138 sanctioned strength across categories stands at over two lakh, yet only about 1.59 lakh employees are in service. This staffing deficit compromises safety, delays operations, and stretches frontline workers beyond reasonable limits. A railway system cannot run on announcements alone; continued under- investment in capacity, personnel, and basic human conditions risk turning the nation’s lifeline into a symbol of administrative exhaustion. It is not just railways. We hear of national corridors and maritime ambitions, but Vizhinjam Port – India’s gateway to global trade and the only port that can host the world’s largest container ships – remains treated as a local afterthought, with no central support announced for the road and rail connectivity that is hampering its potential as a world-class transshipment port. Similarly, while 20 new National Waterways are to be operationalised, it remains unclear how many, if any, will benefit Kerala. Ship repair ecosystems are promised in Patna and Varanasi, but not in a State with 44 rivers and a rich inland waterway network. Our coastal communities face the deadly peril of sea erosion that has already leached so much of our territory into the sea, but there is no money for the sea-walls and groynes so essential for coastal protection. I have been raising this repeatedly in the House over the last 15 years. The Centre tells me it is the State’s problem and the State says it has no money. So, we continue losing our territory, our seafront, to the marauding ocean. The lives and livelihoods of our fisherfolk, mostly living below the poverty line, are apparently of no concern to our budget-makers either. If maritime connectivity disappoints, hon. Chairman, should we rely on the air? The Regional 10.02.2026 1139 Connectivity Scheme promised to give wings to the aam nagrik, to lift aspirations off the ground and make the skies accessible to all. Yet, today, many of those promises lie grounded. Nearly a decade on, at least eleven airports launched under the UDAN scheme have seen flights taper off or disappear altogether – leaving runways without aircraft, terminals without passengers and skies conspicuously empty. Last year, we were promised a modified UDAN with 120 new destinations and four crore passengers. But in this Budget, hon. Chairman, UDAN does not even earn a mention. Not just that, but for fiscal year 2024- 2025, a total of 81 airports owned and operated by the Airports Authority of India have incurred financial losses. Duopolies have led to declining service quality, with the IndiGo fiasco exposing the vulnerabilities of our airline industry. When aviation policies cannot stay airborne beyond announcements, one must ask whether this Government is still committed to democratising the skies as it claims, or rather as the Minister claimed last year. Hon. Chairman, if connectivity cannot move people physically, one would hope education might lift them socially and economically. But here too, we see a betrayal of promises. India speaks of global excellence while presiding over domestic neglect. The National Education Policy promised six per cent of GDP for education; years later, spending remains at barely four per cent, with the Union Government contributing only 0.4 per cent, leaving the States to shoulder an unsustainable burden. The consequences are visible and damaging. Over one and a half lakh schools lack electricity, thousands 10.02.2026 1140 lack toilets, ramps, or basic facilities for children with disabilities, and the foundations of learning continue to crumble, even as we advertise world class universities. This neglect hits the most vulnerable the hardest. For the Scheduled Castes, enrolment falls from 99 per cent at the preparatory stage to 70 per cent at the secondary level; for the Scheduled Tribes, from 99 per cent to just 67 per cent. These numbers reveal a system where poverty pushes students out of classrooms and into premature work. We are told artificial intelligence will shape our future, yet only 52 per cent of Government schools have functional computers and just 58 per cent have internet access. When is artificial intelligence going to come to these schools? Madam Minister, technology without access is not transformation. It is exclusion by design. Continued underfunding paired with grand promises will not uplift our children. It will mortgage India’s future at a discount. Hon. Chairman, if education is one pillar of development the Government should care about, health is surely the other. Budgets may speak in numbers, but nations are built in flesh and blood, and any Budget serious about India's economic potential must invest in human capital. It is because healthcare is not charity, it is foresight. Yet, public health spending remains below two per cent of GDP, missing even the Government's own promise of 2.5 per cent after COVID. An allocation of over Rs. 1 lakh crore to the Health Ministry may sound impressive, but ambition must be measured in proportion not in numbers. The consequences are now visible beyond government hospitals. Since 2019, over 10.02.2026 1141 600 private hospitals have exited the Ayushman Bharat Jan Arogya Yojana, revealing the fragility of coverage without delivery. Insurance that arrives late is merely distress deferred. Meanwhile, the fundamental determinants of health -- clean air, safe water, nutritious food, and mental well-being -- continue to deteriorate even as disputes rise and mental health indicators worsen. A nation that seeks economic greatness cannot afford to economize on the health of its people. Madam, while you propose exempting seven additional rare disease drugs from import duties, your Centres of Excellence for rare diseases are few, unevenly distributed, and unable to utilize even the insufficient funds allocated, leaving thousands of patients to die every year for lack of treatment. And nowhere is this pattern of neglect more glaring than in the case of the long- promised AIIMS in Kerala. The promise was announced in the first year of the NDA Government, but the promise still remains unrealized. A State with one of the strongest public health records in the country continues to wait, while this Budget, like its predecessors, offers neither clarity, nor timelines, nor urgency. 22 AIIMS have been sanctioned across India, Mr. Chairperson. But when it comes to Kerala, the silence is deafening. An AIIMS, that is not even a dot on the map, is not institution-building, it is institutional disregard. Kerala does not lack need, capacity or credibility. What it lacks, it seems, is visibility in this Government's priorities. Why, Mr. Chairperson, is Kerala invisible to this Government? I would like to know. Equally telling is the silence on air pollution. After months of public 10.02.2026 1142 outrage and choking headlines, the Finance Minister's speech found space for everything except the air we breathe. The National Clean Air Program still runs on 2009 standards, weaker than the WHO's PM 2.5 norms, even as pollution control funding has been cut from Rs. 1,300 crore to Rs. 1,091 crore this year. A Budget that saves on rupees, but ignores the air that its citizens breathe reduces development to bad arithmetic, not good progress. Mr. Chairperson, the announcement of three new National Institutes of Pharmaceutical Education and Research or NIPERs raises a troubling question of balance and intent once again. I am sorry to return to my State, but Kerala, despite being one of the country's strongest public health ecosystems and having a proven record in healthcare delivery, once again went unaddressed even as NIPERs are concentrated and clustered in Northern and Eastern India and a single institute in Hyderabad is expected to serve the entire South. This imbalance is not new. I flagged it two years ago when I was the Chairperson of the Standing Committee on Chemicals and Fertilizers. At a time when over 60 per cent of India's 8,500 MSME drug units lack support to adopt even Good Manufacturing Practices, such skewed institutional allocation risks shrinking, rather than strengthening, our manufacturing base. It also does little to reduce our dependence on China for nearly two-thirds of key active pharmaceutical ingredients or to correct India's anaemic R&D investment of just 0.64 per cent of GDP with even large pharma firms spending under one per cent of net sales on their research. The result is predictable -- limited innovation, continued reliance on low-cost biosimilars, 10.02.2026 1143 and life-saving biologics priced far beyond the reach of most Indians when public health spending remains so much below the GDP target of 2.5 per cent. Without correcting regional imbalance and backing institutions with serious R&D support, this NIPER initiative risks sounding visionary while delivering exclusion. Now, all of these shortcomings in the sectors I have surveyed - in infrastructure, education, and healthcare - might have been bearable if at least the economic burden was distributed equitably. But, as per the UNDP Inequality Adjusted Human Development Index, India ranks the lowest of all BRICS countries at 130! The silent shock absorbers of this economy are the middle-class. They are now cracking under the strain. The symbols of success we see today - smartphones, cars, lifestyle assets - are often sustained by EMIs, leaving the aam aadmi little room for health insurance, savings, or medical emergencies. Credit cards, once a luxury or a convenience, have now become a lifeline. Defaults rose 28 per cent last year to Rs. 6,742 crore, not because Indian households are reckless, but because they are running out of room to breathe. With Rs. 2.9 lakh crore in outstanding dues and 10.5 crore cards in circulation, borrowing has become the price of staying afloat. Even as households struggle, the tax burden has quietly shifted onto them. Personal income tax now contributes over half of all direct taxes, while the corporate share declines, as I mentioned earlier. While last year's Budget at least acknowledged middle-class housing stress through the SWAMIH Fund, this 10.02.2026 1144 Budget offers only silence. Inflation may look subdued on paper, but for citizens the cost of living has merely been shifted. When the State fails to provide clean air, safe water and uncontaminated food, households are forced to buy privately what should be public goods, air purifiers, water filters, basic safeguards. This burden is unequal. The privileged can protect themselves, while the poor remain exposed. A nation cannot grow by exhausting the very people who sustain it. The aam aadmi, who are financing this Government, are being sent deeply troubling signals on taxation. A one-time concession allowing Special Economic Zone manufacturing units to sell domestically at reduced duties is little more than tokenism when the SEZ ecosystem itself is collapsing, with hundreds of zones shut and employment in freefall. More disturbing still is the withdrawal of income-tax exemption on disability pensions for Defence personnel. This move weakens social protection for disabled veterans who have risked their lives for our country and draws an indefensible line between service-related disabilities, an abdication of the State's moral duty to those who have made such sacrifices for the nation. I would like to acknowledge that, amid this disaster and disorder, there has been some measure of fiscal discipline. The fiscal deficit has edged down from 4.5 per cent to 4.4 per cent. The Minister speaks of a further reduction to 4.3 per cent. That may sound reassuring on paper. But I have been in this House long enough to remember when her predecessor, the late Arun Jaitley as Finance Minister, set a target of 3.5 per cent. We are nowhere near that 10.02.2026 1145 benchmark today, yet we seem eager to applaud ourselves for settling at a much higher number. Perspective matters, and without it, these figures lose their meaning, especially when they fail the only test that truly counts - whether the aam aadmi has more money in his pocket, whether he has wages that keep pace with prices, whether she or he has a life that is becoming easier. Fiscal prudence cannot be celebrated in isolation when household budgets remain under strain and economic security is elusive for millions. In this Budget, the Union Government has once again doubled down on an infrastructure-led growth strategy, raising capital expenditure to Rs. 12.2 lakh crore on the assumption that public capex will crowd in private investment and generate jobs. But this promise has yet to materialise. In fact, it has not materialized at all during this Government’s tenure. Private investment throughout remains sluggish, labour-intensive sectors are crowded out by capital-heavy projects, and welfare spending has been compressed with key subsidies and social sector allocations falling short of stated goals. The burden has increasingly been pushed onto States without adequate devolution of tax revenue. Meanwhile, unemployment, particularly among educated youth, remains distressingly high and capacity utilisation continues to remain below levels that would trigger a genuine private investment cycle. In this context, the capex-centric approach appears less like a strategy for inclusive growth and more like a gamble that ignores weak demand, joblessness and the lived economic distress of the ordinary citizens. Mr. Chairman, no country can build its future on slogans and headlines 10.02.2026 1146 alone. India’s expenditure on research and development remains frozen at around 0.6 per cent of GDP – well below not just advanced economies, but even several emerging ones. China spends roughly 2.4 per cent, Brazil over one per cent, the United States 3.5 per cent, and South Korea nearly five per cent of GDP. Any nation that seeks to become a hub of manufacturing and knowledge cannot afford to treat research and development as an afterthought. I would strongly urge the hon. Minister to treat R&D as a core national priority. Turning to our urban centres, the same reluctance to innovate is evident in the Smart Cities Mission, which today stands as a symbol of unfulfilled promises. Nearly a decade after its launch, deadlines have been repeatedly pushed back from June, 2023 to December, 2025 without meaningful transformation on the ground. Assertions of 96 per cent completion ring hollow for citizens of Thiruvananthapuram or Warangal or Silvassa or Port Blair, where projects remain unfinished. Large parts of the Northeast continue to fall behind, leaving even the Parliamentary Standing Committee unconvinced. Rather than reshaping urban living, the Mission has largely refurbished select elite enclaves, while essential services for millions remain neglected. I cannot mention the newly announced interim trade arrangement with the United States, which has emerged just after the Minister’s speech. It appears far less like a free trade agreement and far more like a pre-committed purchase that overturns the very idea of reciprocity. How can one justify a so- called reciprocal tariff structure where tariffs of 18 per cent apply on one side 10.02.2026 1147 and zero on the other? At a moment when India’s total bilateral trade with the U.S. is approximately 130 billion U.S. dollars and our trade surplus is only about 45 billion U.S. dollars, how have we undertaken to purchase 500 billion U.S. dollars’ worth of American goods over five years? This converts a surplus into a prolonged deficit not through market forces, but through executive assurances. No major economy has ever voluntarily undermined its own trade leverage in this fashion. While the United States continues to levy import duties of up to 18 per cent, we appear – based on the joint US-India statement now circulating – to have agreed to slash our tariffs to near-zero levels, open up agriculture, weaken data localisation norms, dilute intellectual property protections, and even redirect strategic energy imports, particularly away from Russia, in order to meet purchase commitments. This cannot be described as strategic balancing. It amounts to economic pre-emption. Parliament has not been informed how farmers, MSMEs, and domestic industry will be safeguarded, nor why India has willingly relinquished its negotiating strength without securing proportionate market access or policy flexibility in return. I am aware the Government will ask us to wait for the final agreement expected in mid-March, but these concerns exist today and must be acknowledged now. The Government’s claim that India has obtained a better deal than China, Vietnam, or other Asian economies does not bear scrutiny. 10.02.2026 1148 While India may have received tariff reductions of one or two percentage points, no East Asian economy has agreed to deliberately erode its trade surplus with the U.S. through guaranteed purchase obligations. In fact, China, Vietnam, and several ASEAN nations have expanded their trade surpluses with the U.S. even amid escalating trade tensions. This ambiguity directly affects the credibility of the Budget itself. When both the Minister of Commerce and Industry and the Minister of External Affairs were questioned about these commitments, no clear answers were provided regarding their scale, timeline, or fiscal impact. I raise this in the context of the Budget because its key budgetary assumptions on trade balances, external financing requirements, and overall macroeconomic stability rest on information that Parliament neither possesses nor has been given. A Budget prepared under such opacity is not merely incomplete; it asks this House to endorse figures without understanding the liabilities that may soon arise from this trade arrangement. I do want to say that when two Ministers pass responsibility back and forth, each claiming it falls outside their remit, accountability disappears and Parliament is then left examining a Budget that conceals obligations the Government seems to lack the courage to admit openly. In short, Mr. Chairman, the real weakness of this Government's Budget lies in its implementation, where rhetoric is not matched by reality. Let me quote that famous verse once again by Mirza Ghalib which I think perfectly captures our reality today as reflected in this Budget and its aspirations: 10.02.2026 1149 “हम¤ मालूम है जÆनत कì हकìक़त, लेिकन िदल बहलाने के िलए ग़ािलब यह ´याल अ¸छा है ।” That seems to be what we have had inflicted upon us. We know the reality behind these claims, these tall promises, these narratives of model governance, but they are not policies grounded in outcomes. They are carefully curated illusions, glossy schemes, utopian projections. They might soothe the imagination, िदल तो बहलाता है, but everyday life for the ordinary citizen of India has remained unchanged. Hope is repeatedly sold, but delivery remains perpetually deferred. Viksit Bharat by 2047 is an admirable ambition, safely more than two decades away. This Budget offers no credible pathway to reach it. Instead of narrowing the gap, it widens it. Unemployment continues to rise, poverty hardens, jobs remain scarce, wages remain stagnant. Small businesses already gasping for relief are smothered under layers of compliance, while informal workers, gig workers who sustain our economy with their labour are pushed further into invisibility and insecurity. Government promises railways, yet stations crumble. They speak of flight, yet UDAN has flown away. Our pepper, once celebrated as black gold, withers under neglect. Our long coastline stretches endlessly, but is ignored when it comes to protecting it. Education is curtailed precisely when it should be expanded, while the rhetoric of world-class technology and AI grows louder. One and a half lakh schools still function without electricity, yet Viksit Bharat is spoken of as if the lights are already on. When vision is severed from reality, it ceases to be an aspiration and 10.02.2026 1150 becomes merely an illusion. A truly Viksit Bharat will not be built on slogans, Mr. Chairman, not built on speeches or symbolism, but on delivery that reaches the last citizen of India. Turning promises into outcomes is not a favour; it is not a choice; it is our kartavya; it is your kartavya, may I say to the Government. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Jai Hind. SHRIMATI APARAJITA SARANGI (BHUBANESWAR): Hon. Chairman, Sir, it is my pleasure and privilege to speak on the Union Budget for the financial year 2026-27. Thank you, Chairman Sir, for giving me this opportunity. At the outset, I commend hon. Finance Minister, Madam Nirmala Sitharaman, for giving to this country of 1.4 billion people her ninth consecutive Budget, a Budget which reflects her commitment, the commitment of the Government, the conviction of the Government, and the consistency of the Government. As I stand here to speak, I am reminded of a few words from Rig Veda, the oldest of our Vedas: “संग¸छÅवं संवदÅवं सं वो मनांिस जानताम् ।” हम साथ बोल¤, हम साथ चल¤, हमारी भावना और हमारी सोच एक िदशा म¤ हो । My dear colleagues, we are all moving towards one and only one goal in the country, and the goal is to make India Viksit Bharat by 2047. I can say with all conviction at my command that this particular Budget of the financial year 2026-27 is definitely a very strong step in our common journey. For the sake of clarity, I must say, my dear friends, that our Finance Minister, Madam Nirmala Sitharaman, framed the blueprint around three kartavyas. One, to accelerate 10.02.2026 1151 and sustain economic growth; two, to fulfil the aspirations of the people and build their capacities; and three, to align with our core objective of सबका साथ, सबका िवकास । बंधुगण, यह ऐितहािसक बजट िसफª सं´याओं का संकलन नहé है, बिÐक यह ‘िवकिसत भारत’ कì याýा म¤ हम सबके िलए एक माइलÖटोन है, एक िनणाªयक मील का पÂथर है । यह हमारी आिथªक िÖथरता, सुधार और हम सबके सामूिहक आÂमिवĵास का दÖतावेज है । My dear colleagues, this particular Budget of the Union Government comes at a time when India is actually moving fast in its growth trajectory. We must accept and acknowledge this. This is the first Budget of the second quarter of the 21st Century and that is why it is very important for all of us and for 1.4 billion Indians. Friends, we are aware of the fact that in 2014, we were the 10th largest economy, and at this juncture, our microfinance fundamentals are very strong. We are the fourth largest economy, bypassing Japan and we are going to be the third largest economy, bypassing Germany very soon. Our forest reserves are very high. Our exports have gone beyond 800 billion dollars. I must say here that we have all been listening about the inflation rate. However, at this juncture, in December 2025, inflation is at 1.7 per cent. While I say this, I must say that between 2011 and 2014, the average inflation of this country was 9.8 per cent. I must say this and I think, all of us sitting in this House must appreciate this. Friends, all of us have been talking about the employment rate. It has been declining, and at this juncture, it stands at 4.8 per cent. We must realise 10.02.2026 1152 this. हमारा देश िवदेशी िनवेशकŌ (फॉरेन इÆवेÖटसª) के िलए एक भरोसेमंद गंतÓय कì तरह उभरकर आया है । हम सबको यह समझना होगा िक इस तरह कì जो आिथªक िÖथित है, जब िवĵ म¤ हमारी ÿशंसा हो रही है, हम मज़बूत ज़मीन पर खड़े ह§, तो यह कोई संयोग नहé है । यह हमारे अनुशािसत िव°ीय ÿबंधन, संरचनाÂमक सुधारŌ और ÖपĶ नीित का ÿमाण है । म§ आदरणीय ÿधानमंýी जी कì सोच, दूरदिशªता और मागªदशªन को नमन करती हóं । The analysis of the Budget of the financial year 2026-27 makes it abundantly clear that the Indian Government has chosen the path of long-term growth. This is not impulsive growth or a short-term stimulus. This has been possible by sustained and continuous investment in infrastructure, in institutions, in industrial capacity, and upskilling. We must realise this. These four things which I talked of are extremely important when a country aspires to become a developed nation. As was told by hon. Madam Sitharaman in her speech, the expenditure, today stands at Rs. 53.5 lakh crore. We must remember this. The fiscal deficit stands at 4.3 per cent of the GDP. My dear friends, we are in a very difficult global settings. I think, all my esteemed colleagues who are present in this House are aware of this. It is an age of global uncertainty. In this age of fractured global order, the Government of India has decided to keep building “चरैवेित-चरैवेित” । We must remember this. There is a massive scale-up in public capital expenditure. I remember, in 2014, it was just rupees two lakh crore. We must appreciate that from rupees two lakh crore in 2014-15, it has gone up to Rs.11.2 lakh crore in 2025-26. 10.02.2026 1153 Now, with all pride and as a citizen of this country, I can say that the public capital expenditure has gone up to Rs. 12.2 lakh crore, which is 4.4 per cent of the GDP, registering an increase of 10 per cent over the last year. Friends, we are aware of the fact that if the capital expenditure grows, then, it definitely has a large multiplier effect on the economy. Now, I would like to mention about urban transformation. Urban transformation is a very significant pillar of the Budget. Madam Sitharaman talked about engines of growth. The cities, the big towns are today the engines of growth. A wonderful concept was brought about and placed before all of us, and that is the ‘city economic regions’ focusing on tier II and tier III cities. This has been thought about by the Government. Every city economic region will be given Rs. 5,000 crore over a period of five years to build infrastructure, and we know what will happen. There will be less/reduced pressure on the mega cities and also it will foster balanced development in the process. All of us know that no country ever can actually become a developed nation without having a manufacturing competitiveness, and our Government has tried to give a substantial push to manufacturing competitiveness idea. This will not only create jobs but also help promote our exporting community in the long run. The allocation of Rs. 10,000 crore to bio-pharma sector will not only help our people take care of their health care needs but it will also lead to huge exports. Similarly, there was a mention of many important areas which I think we must be talking about wherever we are. India has really advanced forward. There is focus on Semiconductor Mission 2.0, nuclear sector, rare earth 10.02.2026 1154 corridors, data centres and electronics components mission, with a whopping Rs. 40,000 crore as the allocation. I am sure these investments will lead to less import dependency and make India future ready. I think, these are the things that we are thinking about our country and I underscore the fact that we are intending to become Viksit Bharat by 2047 and that is why we have to be future ready. The provision of 4,000 e-buses is definitely going to enhance regional connectivity. My dear friends, 20 new national waterways, expanded road networks, freight corridors, seven high-speed rail corridors and multi-modal logistics system are giant and are towards a more competitive resilient, confident and self-reliant Viksit Bharat by 2047. We may like it, we may not like it, but we need to accept this. My dear friends, I take this opportunity to convey our immense gratefulness to our hon. Prime Minister for going for almost nine free trade agreements and trade deals with a couple of countries in the last couple of years. Again, there would be critics, there would be nay-sayers but I know, to every action of Prime Minister Modi there is an equal and opposite negative reaction from my right side. Free trade agreements and trade deals have been signed with New Zealand, UK, Oman, Australia, European Union, consisting of 27 nations, and very recently with the US. This is an indication of a particular thing which, I think, we need to appreciate. This is an indication of the fact that the Government of India, under the leadership of our Prime Minister, knows how to navigate in a difficult world order. I talked about difficult global settings. 10.02.2026 1155 We are aware of that and in this difficult world order, the Government of India for the past couple of years, about 10-12 years, has acquired the ability, the capability, the talent to navigate successfully. In this Budget, a number of customs duties and Import Duties have been withdrawn and this is for good. This is to help the exporting community. Friends, I would like to give certain examples which, I think, all of us need to appreciate. We have allowed duty-free import of ingredients by seafood exporters, allowing three per cent of the Free on Board value of exports to be imported duty free by textile and leather goods, and allowing SEZ units to sell in Domestic Tariff Area at concessional duty. These are extremely progressive and pragmatic ways of strengthening our exporting community. My dear friends, our Prime Minister and our Finance Minister have been talking all the while about the Micro, Small, and Medium Enterprises. I would say that they are the backbone of Indian economy, which are extremely important, and they contribute 35.4 per cent of the manufacturing output; about 49 per cent of India’s total exports; and around 31 per cent of the national GDP. Now, with 7.47 crore MSMEs in the country employing around 33 crore people, MSMEs have emerged as the second-largest employer after agriculture. Our Government, under the visionary leadership of our hon. Prime Minister, recognizes this, and, that is why, Rs. 10,000 crore have been allocated as SME Growth Fund. There is a great concept and the concept is ‘Nurturing the Champion MSMEs’. I think this is something very interesting and 10.02.2026 1156 very innovative, and we all need to stand together and appreciate. Friends, a healthy India is a prosperous India. And here, I must like to inform all of you, or, rather help you recall, that Madam Nirmala Sitharaman allocated Rs. 1.06 lakh crore for the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare in this Budget, and, this is a staggering 194 per cent increase over the 2014-15 levels. In order to make our healthcare affordable and even accessible to many people, the customs duties and import duties have been withdrawn from 17 cancer drugs and drugs of many diseases which are rare by nature. I think this is something for which our Government, Prime Minister Modi’s Government, needs to be commended and complimented. My dear friends, could anybody think about Animation, Visual Effects, Gaming and Comics (AVGC)? This Government is planning to raise about two million professionals by 2030 in AVGC sector. It is absolutely out-of-the-box idea. You may like it or not but this is highly innovative and an out-of-the-box idea of our Government. Now, here, the Government will be supporting the Institute of Creative Technologies, Mumbai to raise these professionals and to actually establish Content Creator Labs in about 15,000 secondary schools and 500 colleges. It is very easy for me to read out as my dear friend just did. When you are convinced about what your Government is doing, you know you need not read out from the papers. I know what our Government is doing and how my Government is making and ensuring that India moves forward. I do not have to look into the papers for data and statistics. We are convinced that the Government is moving forward and this confidence is coming out when we 10.02.2026 1157 speak about the Government’s good works. Friends, there is a very interesting thing.

Spoke Shashi Tharoor

Spoke on 2026-02-10T00:00:00.000Z

In debate Ruling regarding Notices of Adjournment Motion