HAZARIBAGH: On his first real campaign day through this lush but poor constituency, Indian Finance Minister Yashwant Sinha sat on a rope bed in a cramped mud brick home and drank a cup of milky tea. Residents pushed up to him to press their claims for paved roads, health clinics, electricity, a job. Sinha looked over at a reporter following him for the day. ``This is a long way from the fiscal deficit,'' he said.Closing that gap between India's organised economy which worries about things like the fiscal deficit and poor rural villages is what Sinha calls his top priority if the BJP-led pre-election coalition wins a majority in Parliament. If Hazaribag is an indication, however, the gap is getting larger, not shrinking.Hazaribagh is located in the northern state of Bihar, which has the second largest number of seats in Parliament, at 54. Bihar's per capita annual income is below $100 according to government data. And the Hazaribagh area is below even Bihar's low standards: its literacy rate is32.4 per cent compared to 38.5 per cent for the state.``What these people want can only be described as the most basic of human needs,'' says Sinha. He is a former bureaucrat who became finance minister in the BJP-led government in 1998 in what even he now calls a ``total surprise'' move. Under his tenure as finance minister, India has moved from a country deep in recession - and reeling under the negative sentiment following economic sanctions - to one of low inflation, decent growth and a recent bull run in the stock market.Sinha has been trumpeting the return of the ``feel good factor'' in the economy throughout 1999, and either despite or because of his cheerleading, optimism has returned to the economy. But many warning signs still persist, as Sinha acknowledged. Among them are the deficits of the states and Central Government and the government's consequent rising debt burden.Polls predict a BJP-led coalition, the National Democratic Alliance, will return to power with a stronger majoritywhen Parliament reconvenes in October. Sinha got more than twice as many votes as his closest challenger in the 1998 election, and is seen set for another easy win this time. If that happens, Sinha said, it would make it more likely that the coalition would speed the pace of sale of state-run companies and cuts in government subsidies. ``There is the will in the party to take these politically unpopular decisions,'' he said.THE ASIAN WALL STREET JOURNAL
