New Delhi, Feb. 10 -- Congress leader Shashi Tharoor on Thursday slammed the Union Budget as a "squandered opportunity", alleging that it ignores unemployment, rising living costs, and inequality and offers little to address the real struggles and aspirations of the common man.

Initiating the debate in Lok Sabha on the Union Budget 2026-27, Tharoor also slammed the Interim Trade Agreement with the United States, stating that "it appears far less like a free trade agreement and far more like a pre-committed purchase that overturns the very idea of reciprocity".

"How can one justify a so-called reciprocal tariff structure where tariffs of 18 per cent apply on one side and zero on the other? At a moment when India's total bilateral trade w...