The Hindu Business Line : Neither fish, nor fowl, nor good red herring

There was no evidence of fresh thinking on the farm front, other than the familiar nostrums that have proved ineffective in addressing the problems of farm productivity.

I frankly confess I had to shake myself every now and then from dozing off while listening to the 100-minute-long Budget speech of the Finance Minister, Mr P. Chidambaram. At the end of it all, the road ahead was still fog-bound, and everything was a blur.

Has the Finance Minister run out of steam, or has his usual elan been dampened by the constituents of the United Progressive Alliance (UPA), especially, the Left parties, pulling in different directions? By comparison, the Railway Minister, Mr Lalu Prasad, presenting his Ministry's Budget, which is normally given secondary importance, seems to have stolen Mr Chidambaram's thunder with a scintillating performance!

Dominant concerns

Perhaps the reason was the formatting of the speech itself. The major part of it, occupying more than an hour, was an over-long, wearisome litany of a series of schemes and allocations, in figures and percentages that had not been woven into any recognisable pattern. It was a jumble of minutiae that had little to do with policy or philosophy.

Since there was nothing sensitive or confidential about the various schemes, they could have been circulated separately, devoting the Budget to substantive proposals having to do with objectives such as economic reforms, fiscal prudence, monetary stability, systemic and structural improvements, and changes in the tax regime.

The dominant concerns of the average citizen this year were inflation, rise in the prices of essential commodities, suicides of farmers unable to make farm operations paying enough to discharge their debt obligations and support their families, measly showing of the agricultural sector, the daunting progress to be made in infrastructure and the uncertainties shrouding economic reforms. On all these issues, one expected the Budget to provide clear, if not convincing, answers.

No doubt, the economy had made impressive gains. Services were at a new high, bank credit recorded a jump, the rate of growth of foreign trade was double that of GDP, there had been a spectacular rise in foreign direct investment, lakhs of school-teachers were being appointed, a big deal was planned for the physically challenged, an autonomous Debt Management Office (with all the attendant paraphernalia) was being set up and gems and jewellery would have a field day. An India International Development Cooperation Agency would go to the help of other countries with expertise and assistance, unorganised workers would be brought within the safety net of a social security scheme, Mumbai would incarnate itself as a financial hub of this part of this world — yes, yes, yes, but what did it all add up to in respect of relieving the aam aadmi of his quotidian worries?

Aam aadmi in the lurch

In fact, somewhere near the concluding part of his speech, the members of the Opposition lost their patience and began raising a ruckus over the Finance Minister leaving the ordinary man in the lurch, and the Speaker, Mr Somnath Chatterji, had a hard time controlling the situation, making one wonder whether an abrupt adjournment was in the offing.

Actually, the reference to aam aadmi, the ostensible mascot of the UPA, occurred only once in the entire Budget speech, when Mr Chidambaram made a mention of the proposed Aam Aadmi Bima Yojana. That was it, and nothing more was heard of him, even in ritual obeisance.

On inflation, all that the Finance Minister came up with was the stale information about the Prime Minister having written to all the Chief Ministers to take care of it at their level by stopping speculation, hoarding and profiteering. One must be thankful that the Finance Minister did not add: Hey presto! Inflation has disappeared.

Nothing fresh on farm

On the farm front, by far the most intractable among the problems confronting the Government, there was no evidence of any fresh thinking.

There were the same old hardy annuals of pumping in more farm credit, provision for short-term crop loans, distributing high-yielding milch animals, doubling the production of certified seeds, addition of lakhs of hectares to irrigated land, some research grants to the Pant and Tamil Nadu Agricultural Universities, and so on.

They are all familiar nostrums, and if they were such good and reliable remedies, why are farmers still committing suicide, and why do farm production and productivity continue to remain at rock bottom?

On infrastructure, again, the Finance Minister who went into great detail over so many other things, left the country guessing about the exact quantum in physical and financial terms of unfinished business, the precise targets set for the coming years and the strategy he intends to adopt to achieve them.

True, he is taking a tantalising shot at the possibility of utilising a part of the forex reserves and letting mutual funds operate schemes for infrastructure development, but this part of the Budget too can only be described as thin gruel.

On giving a push to economic reforms, particularly with reference to financial and banking sectors, bringing labour and trade union laws in tune with the current imperatives and picking up the thread of disinvestment where it left off, there is not even a casual nod in their direction.

Of course, the changes made by Mr Chidambaram in taxes and duties are, in the very nature of things, bound to both please and displease, depending on the side of the fence from which one views them. Anyway, he has kept the framework largely intact and the overall impact is not likely to rob anyone of his peace of mind.

Altogether, a Budget that is neither fish, nor fowl, nor good red herring!