While commentators across news channels and finance desks scramble to decipher what the Union Budget 2025-26 holds for the “common man”, it’s equally important to pause and ask a simpler, harder question: what was conspicuously absent from this budget for the poll-bound state of Assam? Not a single major announcement of strategic significance was teased out specifically for Assam, and, beyond a few broad nods to the North-Eastern region, the budget largely ignored the state’s developmental imperatives in toto.

Invoking the three Kartavyas on Magha Purnima, the Finance Minister spoke of growth, inclusion and equal access to opportunity under the promise of Sabka Saath, Sabka Vikas-yet the Budget’s silence on Assam suggests that the entire East was once again left outside this imagination.

One is left wondering whether the Centre believes the incumbent leadership’s loud positions on illegal immigration and the Uniform Civil Code are adequate for its potential victory in the poll-bound state. Have slogans and signalling done enough that there was no need to back the state with serious projects or fiscal commitment, not just for Assam, but for the entire East?

The Finance Minister’s speech dwelt on national priorities and headline schemes, but on the ground in Assam, which will see elections soon, there was no big ticket, transformative allocation that could genuinely move the needle on growth or regional convergence. That omission merits some reflection.

The budget documents show that the Ministry of........

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