'A Budget Without Strategy': Chidambaram Slams Economic Drift

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Former Finance Minister says Budget 2026 ignores Economic Survey warnings, cuts people-centric spending, and substitutes acronyms for answers.

By S JHA

Mumbai, February 1, 2026 — Former Finance Minister P. Chidambaram has delivered a scathing Budget 2026 critique, accusing the Modi government of abandoning economic strategy and ignoring the stark warnings flagged by the Economic Survey 2025–26. In a sharply worded statement, Chidambaram said the Finance Minister’s speech “astonished” economists more for what it omitted than what it announced.

While acknowledging that a Budget must offer a broader narrative, Chidambaram questioned whether the government had even read its own Economic Survey. He listed at least ten major challenges—ranging from US penal tariffs and trade conflicts to weak private investment, rising trade deficits with China, FDI uncertainty, youth unemployment and collapsing MSMEs—that found no meaningful mention in the speech.

The former Finance Minister argued that the numbers tell a harsher story. In 2025–26, revenue receipts fell short by ₹78,086 crore, while total expenditure undershot estimates by over ₹1 lakh crore. Capital expenditure, he noted, was cut by ₹1.44 lakh crore, pushing the Centre’s capex down from 3.2% to 3.1% of GDP—without any explanation offered to Parliament.

Even more troubling, Chidambaram said, were deep cuts in sectors affecting ordinary citizens. Rural development, urban development, agriculture, education and health all saw reductions, while the Jal Jeevan Mission was slashed from ₹67,000 crore to ₹17,000 crore in revised estimates. Fiscal consolidation, he added, remains timid, with the deficit projected to fall by just 0.1% of GDP next year.

Chidambaram’s sharpest criticism was reserved for what he called the government’s addiction to launching new schemes. He counted at least 24 new initiatives, questioning how many would survive beyond a year.

His verdict was unambiguous: Budget 2026, he said, fails the test of economic strategy and economic statesmanship.