By Special Correspondent
Bhopal: Congress leaders and workers staged a protest outside the Madhya Pradesh Congress Committee office in Bhopal on Sunday against the Union Budget 2026–27, accusing the BJP-led Central government of failing to address the concerns of ordinary citizens. The demonstration was led by Pradesh Congress general secretary Amit Sharma, with protesters carrying rattles to symbolically brand the budget as a “rattle budget”.
Addressing the gathering, Sharma said the budget had offered nothing more than hollow promises to an inflation-hit population. He alleged that the government had ignored the needs of the unemployed youth, farmers, women and the middle class, providing neither meaningful relief from price rise nor tax concessions. He added that there were no concrete measures for women’s safety or employment generation.
Sharma further alleged that the budget discriminated against Madhya Pradesh. Despite being an agriculture-dominated state, no special package or substantial assistance had been announced for farmers, youth or the poor, he said, adding that key sectors such as health, education and employment had also been denied adequate support.
Contrasting the present dispensation with the UPA era, Sharma said earlier budgets had prioritised farmers, youth, education and healthcare, whereas current budgets were limited to “number juggling” while ignoring ground realities. He described the Union Budget 2026–27 as anti-farmer, anti-youth, anti-women and anti–middle class.
State Congress spokesperson Rahul Raj echoed the criticism, calling the budget overtly anti-farmer and anti-youth. He pointed out that while the government claims to double farmers’ income, it continues to impose GST on tractors, harvesters, threshers and irrigation equipment, raising cultivation costs. Raj also criticised the absence of any legal guarantee for MSP and said the budget failed to present a clear roadmap for job creation, deepening the problem of “jobless growth”.
