Left parties protest against ‘anti-people Budget’

Left parties protest against "anti-people" Union Budget 2025-26, advocating for wealth tax, MSP for agriculture, and public asset protection.

Left parties staged a protest as part of a nation-wide campaign against the “anti-people” Union Budget 2025-26 near the Swadesh Mill on Friday (February 21, 2025).

The protest led by the CPI(M), CPI, CPI (ML) and other fronts, sought to highlight the “betrayal of the people” in a Budget that had no plan to address basic needs, raise the purchasing power of the ordinary man or create employment for youth.

According to the Opposition parties, the Budget solely aimed to serve the interests of the corporates and facilitate further concentration of wealth in a few hands by divestment of public sector assets, such as the State-run electricity departments.

A press statement criticised the lack of any meaningful allocations towards education, health and social welfare schemes. In an environment where the allocation for the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme needed to be increased manifold, it had been starved of additional funds.

The Left parties also offered an alternative vision that proposed a 4% wealth tax on the richest 1% and a minimum support price for all agricultural products, besides the withdrawal of draft National Agricultural Market Scheme and suspension of the handover of public assets to private players.