If the stock markets show a thumbs down to the Finance Minister’s speech, I urge him not to worry. The markets can be just one of the barometers of what he has set out to achieve. Their role is at the peripheral level. The markets can’t purport to be the masters of democracy. The real masters are the people, and if this government fails to deliver to them, it will have to go. Put it any which way, the markets are nothing without the people. Having started on this point, I won’t stretch the argument in the opposite direction either. I must say, it isn’t exactly a ‘‘Dream Budget’’ even for the constituency it seeks to serve. It’s a Budget that has tried to answer the requirements and compulsions of the present time. As an overview, this Budget reflects the major concerns of the Common Minimum Programme (CMP). It is pro-people and gives due priority to rural development, education and health. Agriculture has been given top priority ranging from tractors to spades and shovels. This has been our demand for a long time. As for employment, the idea of guaranteed 100 days of work is part of the CMP. But I would like to see this work not just in 150 backward districts but all districts in our country. Even on public distribution, we would like universalisation. Why target those around the poverty line alone? The government only has to look at what the Kerala model has been able to do: target all salaried people, act as a check against price rise, and ensure affordability. Another Big Idea this time is water. Drinking water, restoring depleted resources, fighting desilting: we’ll look forward to the pilot scheme that Chidambaram has talked about. That will set the tone for future projects. I like what I see on education. Improving training capacities at the Industrial Training Institutes (ITIs) is a good idea. Yes, there are some who are criticising the two per cent cess on education. But I don’t find the cess ‘‘regressive’’ at all. The society needs to show its commitment. Let me now turn to a few things we don’t like. The increase in the levels of foreign equity in telecom, civil aviation, insurance is unacceptable. We oppose it. Then the PSU Reconstruction Board is a vague idea. It indicates a desire on the part of the government to continue disinvestment. We don’t agree with that. The Budget is the concrete interpretation of political intent. On this count, we see it going away from the CMP. Then this business of increasing the caps governing Foreign Institutional Investors (FIIs) in domestic debt instruments and securities in certain sectors. What are the controls? We don’t see any. Malaysia’s Mahathir had control so that FIIS couldn’t just fly by the night. Where are our controls? What will we do when there is volatility? Similarly, we don’t like the idea of 85 items being dereserved from their Small Scale Industry (SSI) status. How are you then going to support SSIs as providers of export and employment? The absence of any major changes in taxation is okay, but we expected the FM to give a direct indication on increasing provident fund interest rates on the lines of what the employees were demanding. Finally, a word about private carping by FICCI, CII and some other industry bodies. Our message to them is that they’ve been given enough. It is high time that the country gave attention to agriculture and rural development and corrected the lop-sidedness shown by the National Democratic Alliance. Here, I don’t just include the villages. The scope of reform includes every poor person in our country whether in the villages or our cities. I only wish the industry had given some attention to industrial slums. The writer is the national secretary, Communist Party of India
