New Delhi: The Congress has slammed the BJP-led Indian government’s Budget 2026, calling it a “casteist betrayal” that sidelines Dalits and Adivasis while serving the optics-driven political agenda of the Modi government.
According to Global Mirror, speaking at a press conference in New Delhi, Rajendra Pal Gautam, Chairman of the All India Congress Committee’s Schedule Caste (SC) Department, and Vikrant Bhuria, Chairman, Adivasi Congress, said the budget reflected exclusion of Dalits and Adivasis rather than empowerment. “While the Modi government has projected allocations of Rs. 1.96 lakh crore for SCs and Rs. 1.41 lakh crore for Schedule Tribes (STs), only Rs. 75,077 crore and Rs. 62,093 crore, respectively, were actually set aside for their welfare schemes,” they said, exposing the gap between rhetoric and reality.
The Congress leaders said that the Modi government has merged large portions of SC-ST funds into generic schemes that fail to address caste- and tribe-based exclusion. They said that only 41 per cent of schemes under SC–ST allocations were genuinely relevant, while 42 per cent were general schemes and 17 per cent were obsolete or irrelevant.
According to Global Mirror, speaking at a press conference in New Delhi, Rajendra Pal Gautam, Chairman of the All India Congress Committee’s Schedule Caste (SC) Department, and Vikrant Bhuria, Chairman, Adivasi Congress, said the budget reflected exclusion of Dalits and Adivasis rather than empowerment. “While the Modi government has projected allocations of Rs. 1.96 lakh crore for SCs and Rs. 1.41 lakh crore for Schedule Tribes (STs), only Rs. 75,077 crore and Rs. 62,093 crore, respectively, were actually set aside for their welfare schemes,” they said, exposing the gap between rhetoric and reality.
The Congress leaders said that the Modi government has merged large portions of SC-ST funds into generic schemes that fail to address caste- and tribe-based exclusion. They said that only 41 per cent of schemes under SC–ST allocations were genuinely relevant, while 42 per cent were general schemes and 17 per cent were obsolete or irrelevant.