BY MOHAMMAD TARIQUE SALEEM
Akhilesh Yadav stood up in the Lok Sabha on 10 February 2026 and basically said what a lot of ordinary people are already feeling: “This budget doesn’t feel like it’s made for us.” He didn’t mince words. For more than fifteen minutes he tore into the Union Budget 2026–27, calling it directionless, depressing, and, in his exact style, made mostly for the BJP’s “invisible friends”. That phrase got laughs, some angry murmurs from the treasury benches, and definitely went viral on WhatsApp groups within the hour.
Let’s be honest: when Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman presented the budget, the headlines were full of the usual big numbers, 4.4% fiscal deficit target, 100% FDI in insurance, 40,000 new houses under PMAY, greenfield airports in Bihar, youth skilling schemes, infrastructure push. On paper it sounded ambitious. Akhilesh’s point was simpler: “Paper pe toh sab theek hai, zameen pe kuch nahi badlega.” He started politely, thanking the Speaker for giving him time, but within two minutes he was asking the real questions most middle-class and lower-middle-class families want answered:
- Where is the relief from inflation?
- Where are the jobs for our children?
- What’s actually reaching the farmer who’s still waiting for a fair price?
- Why does every big announcement feel like it benefits only five percent of the population?
He didn’t just complain; he painted a picture. “Ninety-five percent logon ke liye kuch nahi hai is budget mein,” he said. “Yeh budget un invisible doston ke liye bana hai jo hamesha profit mein rehte hain.” That line about “invisible friends” is going to be quoted for weeks. The India-US trade deal was another target. He called it “deal nahi, dhil”, not a deal, just loose talk. He mocked the way the government keeps hyping these big international agreements while small industries and local manufacturers keep struggling.
“Halwa yahaan baant diya ya wahaan?” he asked, referring to the traditional budget halwa ceremony. People in the House laughed, but you could also feel the sting. Unemployment hurt him the most, you could tell. He kept coming back to the youth. “Yuva shakti” is the government’s favourite slogan, he said, but where is the actual plan to give jobs to the lakhs of youngsters who pass out every year? He pointed out that rural Uttar Pradesh, and most of northern India, is still drowning in joblessness.
Ladke-ladkiyan degree leke ghoom rahe hain, par naukri nahi mil rahi. Budget mein iska kya jawab hai? Farmers got a special mention too. He asked straight-up: “Kis farmer ko fayda hua? MSP ka kya? Kharif ke baad fasal ka daam gir jaata hai, uska kya?” According to him, the agriculture allocation looks big only on paper; the reality in the fields hasn’t changed. Somewhere in the middle he also brought up a different kind of pain, the case of Moid Khan, an elderly Samajwadi Party worker from Uttar Pradesh who, according to Akhilesh, was kept in jail for nineteen months on false charges just because he is Muslim and influential in his area.
“Ek buddha aadmi ko jail mein rakha gaya sirf election jeetne ke liye,” he said. That part of the speech got very quiet in the House. It wasn’t just about money anymore; it was about fairness and dignity. Akhilesh has been doing this for years, standing up for the “95 percent” while the government keeps talking about the “Amrit Kaal” and Viksit Bharat. Whether you agree with his politics or not, you can’t deny he knows how to speak the language of the average voter. He doesn’t use too many English words or complicated terms. He talks about roti, bijli, sadak, naukri, mehngai, the things people actually discuss at home.
Of course the BJP MPs pushed back. They said the budget is forward-looking, that growth will eventually reach everyone, that opposition is just doing politics. But Akhilesh’s speech wasn’t really meant for them. It was meant for the people watching on TV, scrolling X, or chatting in tea stalls, the ones who feel the budget speech every time they open their kirana bill or see another “degree-holding” son sitting idle at home. At the end of the day, his message was blunt: this budget might look shiny from Delhi’s air-conditioned rooms, but it doesn’t feel like it was written with the aam aadmi in mind. And that feeling, more than any number or percentage, is what decides elections.
