Chennai, February 17 The opposition AIADMK criticized the interim budget for 2026-27 as "mere words" and claimed that it "deceived" the people.
The party's legislators, who attended the presentation of the interim budget estimates by Finance Minister Thangam Thennarasu, displayed invitation cards for a "piercing ceremony" outside the Assembly House to symbolically claim that the budget was "deceptive."
While the invitation cards, written in Tamil, referred to a traditional ear piercing ceremony, the phrase also serves as a metaphor for deception or trickery.
The AIADMK MLAs displayed the invitations for the "grand ear piercing ceremony," which would be officiated by the chief minister, with the finance minister performing the ceremony. The cards stated that presentation covers containing cash could be given as gifts, symbolically indicating the increase in property tax, water tax, and electricity bills.
Later, speaking to reporters, AIADMK general secretary Edappadi K Palaniswami said that, like in the past, the budget did not contain anything concrete for the people.
"It lacked substance and is merely wordplay... attractive like a fig but rotten inside," Palaniswami alleged.
Tamil Nadu BJP chief spokesperson Narayanan Thirupathy said, "the DMK's last deceptive interim budget" focused entirely on criticizing the BJP-led Central government, but failed to hide the failures of their so-called "Dravidian Model" governance.
TNCC chief K Selvaperunthagai termed the budget as "historic" and said allocations were made for all sectors without bias.