No doubt, year after year the Union Budget ritual is a big let down. But then, this year’s Budget has surpassed all such milestones created by previous Budgets in letting down the masses of this country. It was amazing to watch how casually and callously our honourable Finance Minister (FM) kept on doling out favours after favours, with the least respect for a citizen’s money. It was also amazing to note how our sitting MPs, dead drunk in ‘populism’, kept on vehemently applauding each and every illogical and irrational announcement made by the FM. The final icing came towards the end of his speech, when mainstream media, industrial associations and industrial big wigs shamelessly sang in unison in appreciation for the FM, without getting into the details of the actual impending effects of some of the reckless decisions taken by him, in his Budget speech. Let’s start with our Honourable FM’s biggest kill in this year’s Budget – Waiving of a staggering Rs 60,000 crores worth of loans of ...
Dr. Arindam Chaudhuri
(An IIPM Think Tank Blog)