Click to play videoNew Delhi: Finance Minister P Chidambaram will table the 2008-09 Union Budget on Friday in Parliament. But it will not be an easy task for the Minister, as he will have to surrender his economic reasoning to the logic of the ballot paper.
Never before has the Union Budget been under so much pressure to do the political talking. The crescendo has been building up for the past few days with the daily pandemonium witnessed in Parliament.
Meanwhile, the Opposition has been playing the game of competitive populism.
“We will have to wait and see what the Centre will actually do for the farmers,” BJP leader Yashwant Sinha said.
Politicians across party lines have spoken for the cause of the farmer, and they all believe that farmer suicides will be the biggest issue that would dominate the General Elections.
Chidambaram, too, has to bear in mind the concerns of his own party, UPA allies and the Left, which has a huge wishlist that includes substantial investment in the agricultural sector.
“Firstly, we should invest in agriculture. Secondly, it should be ensured that institutional credit flows to the farmer,” CPI-M politburo member Sitaram Yechury said.
In an election year politics means keeping your focus on the social sector and some of the expectations of the political class from the Finance Minister are as follows:
- A Rs 32,000-crore debt waiver for farmers.
- A large education outlay to take care of the Eleventh Five Year Plan Commitment of over Rs 2,70,000 crore.
- More investment for minority welfare as suggested by the Sachar panel.
- Enhanced outlay for women and child development, especially the girl child.
- Extension of NREGA to all districts of the country.
Pundits will cry bad economics but Chidambaram has a better revenue cushion to be able to splurge on political necessities. He can't help it because these are some of the wishes of even the UPA Chairperson Sonia Gandhi. Adding to all this, the Congress youth icon, MP Rahul Gandhi, has also been speaking the rural language.
“We went to speak to the Prime Minister about the NREGA program and we discussed the implementation of the program in different states,” Gandhi said.
It's a Budget that should be more than promises, as there is no other way of escaping the political reality – votes don't come cheap any longer.
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