Chidambaram slams govt for cuts to agriculture, rural development grants

New Delhi: Attacking the Union government for cutting allocations for agriculture and rural development, senior Congress leader P Chidambaram on Monday said it was a huge setback as villages would be deprived of better roads and houses. 

Initiating a general discussion on the Union Budget in the Rajya Sabha, the former finance minister also said: "Agriculture allocation has been cut by Rs 6,985 crore. Rural development allocation has been cut by Rs 53,067 crore."

He noted, "Youth unemployment is 15%. Less than 25% of the workforce is in regular employment. There is a shift to self-employment, and more workers are in the agriculture sector than they were four or five years ago."

He added, "In a country of 144 crore people, only 1.95 crore are employed in a factory. Manufacturing, which is largely factories, is stuck at 16% for many, many years."

The government's much-vaunted "Reform Express" was stuck, if not derailed, and while the youth unemployment continued to pose a serious challenge, the government's "internship scheme" had failed, he said.

"This is a forgettable budget,... which has been prepared by a finance minister who forgot her promises made in this House last year," he alleged.

"For almost 12 years, capital investment has been stuck at 30% of the GDP. Net FDI in 2024-25 collapsed to less than 0.09%. Foreign-portfolio investors are pulling out. Private investment, although companies are cash rich, is stuck at 22% of the GDP," he said.

"In this situation, where neither the public sector nor the private sector nor foreign investors are investing in India, this government has cut capital expenditure. In the year 2025-26, they cut capital expenditure by a whopping Rs 1,44,376 crore," added Chidambaram, continuing: "And what is worse, states' capital expenditure, for which the Centre gives advances, has been cut by Rs 1,19,041 crore."

Highlighting the PM Internship scheme, in which the corporate houses were persuaded to offer internships, Chidambaram said," 1.65 lakh offers came. Only 33,000 were accepted. Are there no young men and women to accept an internship in big companies? ...And of the 33,000 that were accepted, 6,000 left the job."

Demanding an explanation from Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, he asked: "What is wrong with the internship scheme?"