India’s Opposition parties have called the Union Budget 2026–27 underwhelming, opaque and disconnected from ground realities even as Prime Minister Narendra Modi pitched it as a milestone in India’s reform journey, saying it reflected the aspirations of “140 crore Indians.”

Leader of the opposition in Lok Sabha, Rahul Gandhi, on Sunday said the 2026 Budget was “blind” to the country's real crises.

"Youth without jobs. Falling manufacturing. Investors pulling out capital. Household savings plummeting. Farmers in distress. Looming global shocks - all ignored," the Congress leader said.

Modi said the Budget reflected the aspirations of 140 crore Indians and strengthened the reform journey and charted a clear roadmap for Viksit Bharat.

“This budget is a strong foundation for our high flight toward a developed India by 2047. Friends, the reform express on which India is riding today will gain new energy and new momentum from this budget,” Modi said.

Opposition parties across the spectrum said the Budget has no clarity on spending priorities.

Congress general secretary of communications Jairam Ramesh said both the content and the presentation of the Budget were disappointing.

“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 wrote on X.

He also criticised finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman’s speech for lacking transparency.

“The speech was also non-transparent since it gave no idea whatsoever of budgetary allocations for key programmes and schemes,” he said.

Congress MP Shashi Tharoor flagged what he described as glaring regional omissions, particularly the absence of Kerala from key infrastructure references.

Speaking after the Budget presentation, Tharoor said it was “shocking” that Kerala did not figure in discussions on connectivity and ship preparation, even as other regions were named.

“The problem was the speech was very short on specifics, we didn’t get much details. We were waiting for specifics on Kerala but hardly heard the name mentioned other than the context of rare earths. The long promised announcement of an All-Indian Institute of Medical Science has still not come. The All Indian Institute of Ayurveda was mentioned but no States were specified”

“They mentioned ship repair but they put it in Patna and Varanasi not Kerala but we have a lot of inland waterways. So far I have seen nothing to make me happy,” Tharoor said, adding that he would study the full Budget before offering a detailed assessment.

Congress president and leader of the Opposition in the Rajya Sabha Mallikarjun Kharge said the Modi government had “run out of ideas”, adding that Budget 2026 offered “not a single solution” to India’s economic, social and political challenges.

Taking aim at the government’s messaging, he said, “‘Mission Mode’ is now ‘Challenge Route’” and that the much-touted “‘Reform Express’ rarely stops at any ‘Reform’ Junction”, resulting in “no policy vision” and “no political will”.

Kharge flagged the absence of support for farmers, rising inequality “worse than the British Raj”, and what he called the Centre’s failure to address jobs, manufacturing, inflation and social security, while warning that states under financial stress had received no real relief, making federalism “a casualty”.

The Samajwadi party chief, Akhilesh Yadav questioned the Budget’s relevance to ordinary citizens.

“This Budget is beyond the understanding of the poor. How will you build a developed India without education?” he said.

West Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee dismissed the Budget as directionless and accused the Centre of political bias.

Calling it a “Humpty Dumpty budget”, Banerjee said, “Bihar got it, Bengal was deprived. Directionless budget. Bengal is deprived knowing that it will not get votes.”

She linked the Budget to market volatility and accused the government of recycling old announcements. “There has been a huge collapse in the stock market. Sensex has fallen by almost 1000 points. They are talking about freight corridors. I said that in 2009. For so long, that project has not been implemented in reality. Budget full of lies. Anti-poor, anti-farmer budget of the center,” she said, repeating that it was an “Anti-poor, anti-farmer budget of the center”.

TMC MP Abhishek Banerjee said the omission of West Bengal reflected what he called the Centre’s step-motherly attitude.

“The Union Finance Minister spoke for 1 hour 25 minutes. In this entire time, West Bengal was not mentioned even once. This budget also didn’t mention youth, farmers, or employment... This budget is faceless, baseless, and visionless,” he said.

Abhishek Banerjee also alleged that funds meant for Bengal under central schemes had been withheld. “Clearly, the BJP’s step-motherly attitude is on display. We have been saying this for the last five years: if this government can show, by releasing a White Paper, that after the BJP’s debacle in the 2021 West Bengal polls even one job-card holder from Bengal under MGNREGA received money through Direct Benefit Transfer, I will quit politics,” he said.

He added similar claims regarding housing and road schemes, accusing the Centre of punishing the state electorally. “In Bengal, they are losing, so the BJP, with its step-motherly attitude, is trying to teach the people of Bengal a lesson. But in a democracy, it works the other way around,” he said.

The finance minister proposes to raise the capex target to Rs 12.2 lakh crore for FY27 from Rs 11.2 lakh crore earmarked for current fiscal.