AAP calls Delhi budget ‘hawa hawai’, baseless and unrealistic

Leader of Opposition Atishi on Tuesday slammed the Delhi budget, calling it a “hawa hawai budget” and labelling it “baseless and unrealistic”.

Atishi alleged that the BJP government deliberately avoided presenting the Economic Survey before the budget, saying, “If the government truly had Rs one lakh crore in revenue, they wouldn’t have hesitated to present the Economic Survey in the Assembly. They hid it because the numbers would expose the truth behind this hollow budget.”

She accused the BJP of slashing key allocations to essential sectors like education, health, and municipal services, saying the budget reveals the government’s “intent to weaken public services”.

“For the first time in 10 years, the education budget has fallen below 20 per cent, showing their agenda to destroy government schools. Health spending has also been cut to 13 per cent — the lowest in a decade — to dismantle free treatment services for the poor,” she said.

Delhi Chief Minister Rekha Gupta on Tuesday presented Rs one lakh crore FY26 Budget with ten focus areas, including Yamuna cleaning, economic empowerment of women, infrastructure, water, and connectivity, asserting that it is a roadmap for making the national capital self-reliant.

In her 138-minute speech, Gupta, who also holds the finance portfolio, called the maiden budget of the BJP government “historic”, emphasising that the era of “corruption and inefficiency” was over.

This is the first budget presented by a BJP government in Delhi in over 26 years, following the party’s victory over the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) in last month’s Assembly elections.

Atishi further criticised the reduced Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) budget, pointing out that the Rs 8423 crore allocation from 2024-25 has been slashed to Rs 6897 crore this year, calling it an attempt to “cripple the city’s cleaning system.”

She also accused Gupta of using the budget speech to target AAP and Arvind Kejriwal rather than focus on Delhi’s development.

“Rekha Gupta ji spent 1.5 hours of her two-hour speech just attacking AAP. The elections are over — it’s time to work for Delhi, not to abuse us,” adding, “This budget makes one thing clear: less work, more slogans. Five years of just insults — that’s the BJP’s real agenda.”

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Calling the budget a “jumla,” she challenged the BJP to release the Economic Survey and present the real figures on revenue and tax collections to prove the budget’s credibility.

“This isn’t a budget — it’s a smokescreen to hide (PM Narendra) Modi ji’s false guarantees,” Atishi said.

Previously, Atishi had presented the budget for the financial year 2024-25 with an outlay of Rs 76,000 crore.

(With inputs from PTI)