The Opposition expressed disappointment at the interim budget presented by Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Thursday, saying the government dresses up its failures as successes.
Former Union Finance Minister P Chidambaram declared the budget "callous".
The veteran congress leader accused the government of betraying the expectations of the people and being disconnected from the real-life concerns of the people regarding their livelihoods and the widening wealth gap between the rich and poor.
"Let me begin by pointing out, with regret, that the FM has not mentioned the words unemployment, poverty, inequality or equity anywhere in her speech. Mercifully, she mentioned the word poor twice in her speech. I am sure the people of India will take note of who is concerned about the government and who is not," said Chidambaram.
Chidambaram said, "Who has benefited from this Budget? Certainly, not the poor. Not the youth looking desperately for jobs. Not those who have been laid off. Not the bulk of the taxpayers. Not the homemaker. Not the thinking Indians who are shocked by the growing inequality, the rise of the number of billionaires and the wealth being accumulated in the hands of the 1 per cent of the population. Certainly, not you."
"The government's focus on pushing the 'new' tax regime, which has few takers due to various reasons, is unjust and will rob the ordinary taxpayer of the minimal social security they may receive under the old tax regime," Chidambaram added.
He went on to claim that the government is determined to promote the fortunes of the Gujarat International Finance Tec-City (GIFT) in Ahmedabad at the expense of other financial centers.
Chidambaram further criticized the government for ignoring the headwinds faced by India and the world, as listed in the Economic Survey.
"The government is living in its own imaginary world and the budget speech did not acknowledge the challenges faced," he stated.
Congress MP Shashi Tharoor called it one of the shortest budget speeches on record.
"It was one of the shortest speeches on record in the Budget. Not very much came out of it. As usual, a lot of rhetorical language, very little concrete on implementation. She talked about foreign investment without acknowledging that investment has come down significantly," Tharoor claimed.
"She talked about a number of things which are couched in vague language like 'confidence' and 'hope' and so on. But when it comes to hard figures, very few figures available.This is going to be a very disappointing speech in terms of being couched entirely in generalities and without enough substance nor any willingness to address the specific problems of the economy," he added.
After Nirmala Sitaram's budget speech, congress MP Manish Tewari said the "budget deficit" is very worrying.
He said, "It is a 'vote-on-account' which has only one purpose to keep the government solvent for the first quarter of the current fiscal year. What's worrying is that there is a budget deficit of Rs 18 lakh crores. This means that the government is borrowing for its expenditure. This number is only going to increase next year."
In a post on X, Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav claimed this was the Narendra Modi government's farewell budget.
"If any budget is not aimed at development, if any budget is not for the people than it is a waste. The BJP government has made a shameful record of the governance over the last ten years, which will never be broken because a positive government will soon come. This is BJP's farewell budget," he wrote on X.
