Chidambaram affirms Sitharaman is doing a Musk on MEA–

Congress leader P Chidambaram on Monday took a swipe at Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, examining whether she was doing an Elon Musk by reducing the allocate the External Affairs Ministry.

During the conversation on the Union Budget 2025-26 in the Rajya Sabha, Chidambaram asked about the factors behind the decreased allowances for the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) and whether the federal government is preparing to shut consular offices and consular offices, therefore decreasing India’s international visibility.

“The finance minister asked this House to appropriate Rs 20,517 crore for the Ministry of External Affairs. In FY 2023-24, we allocated Rs 28,915 crore, in the current year (FY 2024-25) the revised estimate is 25,277 crore, almost 3,600 crore less,” he stated.

He included, “And for next year, the finance minister is asking for Rs 20,517 crore, another 5,300 crore less. I suspect that the finance minister is doing an Elon Musk on the External Affairs Ministry. Somebody must explain, are we shrinking our world presence? Are we closing down our embassies?” he asked.

The Congress leader likewise stated that the Union Budget was“politically driven” “It is obvious that the Budget was politically driven, I shall not elaborate on that. There was no philosophy behind the Budget,” stated Chidambaram.

Tech billionaire Elon Musk supervises of the United States Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) established by President Donald Trump after winning his 2nd term to reduce federal government expense, and run it extra effectively and in an economically feasible way.

With inputs from companies