Union Budget 2026: The Opposition was listless and almost disinterested

Although the benches in the Lok Sabha were dotted with red — ranging from the lightweight magenta Kanjivaram sari embellished with yellow checks that Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman chose for Budget day, to the brilliant red of the caps worn by Samajwadi Party MPs and the vermilion saris and shawls on both sides of the House — the mood of the House was grey, almost as grey as the sky outside. 

 

The Budget  speech (2026-27) got the expected applause from MPs from the treasury benches, but the mood of the opposition was listless and almost disinterested. Opposition MPs listened to the speech quietly, only protesting occasionally to flag the absence of poll-bound Kerala from explicit mention.

 

 

Sitharaman looked, as she has before, to the gallery where her extended family was seated, before launching into her speech. Her reference to the shift to the new offices of the Ministry of Finance in Kartavya Bhavan from the North Block evoked an appreciative smile from the Prime Minister. He would go on to thump the desk multiple times, especially when the minister referred to the control on fiscal deficit to 4.3 per cent, lower than in FY26, the bouquet of fisheries measures, hubs for health and a push to AYUSH and Ayurveda, including a traditional medicine centre at Jamnagar. The reference to a new deal for coconut farmers was also welcomed.

 

The most enthusiastic backing for the Budget came from home and cooperation minister Amit Shah, as the finance minister listed a number of financial measures for the cooperative sector by extending the tax benefits of income earned by cooperative societies to new sectors and under the new taxation regime. Tax breaks on equipment for nuclear power also elicited some applause from the treasury benches.

 

Opposition MPs coming out of the Lok Sabha after the speech said they saw little evidence in the Budget to mitigate the crisis Indian exporters were facing in the current geo-political environment. 

 

However, Sitharaman did refer to international conditions in the speech, keeping the tone neutral, omitting references to the recent Indo-EU trade pact, and avoiding speculation on the Indo-US trade pact. Sops to leather goods and garment exporters in terms of duty-free inputs but without specifying the inputs; and extension of the timeline for incentives for garment exporters were some concessions that evoked appreciative applause from treasury benches.

 

There was no pointed reference in the speech to the upcoming assembly polls in Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Puducherry, West Bengal and Assam. However, the mention of developing the rare-earth sector did evoke a response from opposition MPs, as it refers largely to poll-bound Tamil Nadu and Kerala — considered repositories of rare earth in India. Opposition MPs raised slogans of ‘shame shame’ when she referred to the tabling of the 16th Finance Commission. Although both Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi were present in the House, they neither jeered nor cheered the Budget. Misa Bharati of the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) told Business Standard: “I understood that a new freight corridor will be set up between Dankuni in West Bengal to Surat... Surat! Jamnagar! But beyond this, we need to study it to understand it.” 

 

Interestingly, the galleries were packed, testifying  to the public interest in the event. Although not many diplomats could be seen, ordinary people thronged the public gallery to listen to the Budget speech first hand. This was the heartwarming reminder that despite the opposition characterisation of the Budget as ‘insipid’, it still mattered to many.