Mamata: Budget visionless, missionless & anti-people
Kolkata: Terming the Union Budget as “garbage of lies” leading to a “derailment of economy”, Bengal Chief Minister and Trinamool Congress (TMC) chairperson Mamata Banerjee on Sunday accused the Centre of not releasing funds for the state and described the Budget as “visionless and missionless”.
Her party’s national general secretary, Abhishek Banerjee, termed the Union Finance minister’s Budget speech a “self-appraisal report”.
Speaking to reporters departing for Delhi, Mamata at Kolkata airport alleged that the Union Budget 2026-27, presented by Finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman, was anti-people, anti-women and anti-tribal. Referring to the stock market decline, Banerjee said: “Look at how the share market has fallen. This is a Humpty Dumpty Budget.” Mamata claimed that the Budget had nothing for the common man. “This Budget is directionless, visionless, actionless and anti-people. The economy is derailed. It is also anti-women, anti-farmer, anti-youth, anti-poor and against the SC, ST and OBC... There is nothing on offer for Bengal in the Budget,” she alleged.
Abhishek, in his reaction to the Union Budget, accused the Narendra Modi government of branding people of West Bengal as “Bangladeshis”. He criticised Sitharaman for not mentioning the state in her Budget speech. “The Budget speech was 85 minutes long, 5,100 seconds, but Bengal was not mentioned even once. Forget Bengal; there was nothing concrete for farmers, youth or any community,” he said. Abhishek also termed Sitharaman’s speech a “self-appraisal report”. “It is more like a document written by the government’s own PR department, with no concrete solutions for anyone,” he said. Meanwhile, Bengal Chief Minister on Sunday claimed that the rail corridor announced by the Centre was originally conceptualised by her. In her Budget speech, Sitharaman proposed seven high-speed rail corridors, including one between Varanasi and Siliguri. She also announced a new dedicated freight corridor connecting West Bengal’s Dankuni in the east to Gujarat’s Surat in the west.
Trinamool Congress chairperson reacted to this saying: “They announced three corridors, we have already announced six economic corridors. The freight corridor from Dankuni mentioned in this Budget was actually mentioned by me in the 2009 Railway Budget. There, I had mentioned about Dankuni Amritsar, which has been pending for more than 15 years. What they said about the three corridors is absolutely garbage (full) of lies. Blatant lies. It is already in process, and we have started working there.”
Mamata claimed that the Centre only resorted to the jugglery of words. She also added: “In the Jangalmahal Jangal Sundari project in Purulia, for this economic corridor, Rs 72,000 Crores are going to be invested...They have not given a single paisa to Bengal. Only one tax is there, GST. They are taking away our money and saying big things that they are giving us money. It is our money...So, they don’t have any moral authority to run the Govt and finish the country like this.”
“Only one tax is there, GST. They are taking away our money and saying big things that they are giving us money. It is our money...So, they don’t have any moral authority to run the government and finish the country like this,” Mamata further maintained. Abhishek, on the other hand, also attacked the Centre on the Budget. He said that the Budget offered no solutions for any section of society and described it as a “faceless, baseless and visionless” exercise. Questioning the government’s focus on technology-driven initiatives, Banerjee said there was no clarity on job creation or improving farmers’ incomes.
“They talk about AI, Skill India and technological advancement, but how will the youth get employment? How will jobs be generated? There is no mention of these issues,” Abhishek said. He again alleged that the Union government and its ministers had repeatedly branded people of West Bengal as Bangladeshis.
“It is the Union government and its ministers, the ones who presented the Budget, who call us Bangladeshis. Bengal was not even mentioned. Jal Jeevan Mission money has been stopped, they have not even fulfilled old promises...” Banerjee added. The Diamond Harbour MP also pointed out that while the National Institute of Mental Health and Neuro Sciences (NIMHANS) exists in Bengaluru and new institutes have been announced for Jharkhand and Assam, West Bengal did not receive anything.
