Budget plays the blues

Promptly, Prannoy Roy summoned up a graphic which revealed some consumer-friendly budgetary provisions and he promised more such information. Sooner rather than later, you begged him, under you breath. It was just after 2 pm, and for the first time since the telecast began at 11 am, millions of viewers across the country, understood what the budget might mean to their ordinary, every day lives.

As the lady in Bangalore clearly revealed, she hadn’t understood anything of the Finance Minister’s speech, though she’d watched most it. And so say all of us. The expert comments which followed Yashwant Sinha’s speech didn’t help: the deficits, the outlays, the expenditures, therate of growth, etc. — what on earth did it all mean? Only the bit about taxes, immediately hit you hard on the head and wallet.

The Prime Minister appeared somewhat uncomprehending. No wonder he delivered an unprecedented prepared speech in English and Hindi on DD1, as replete with homilies as his subsequent remarks (STAR). The budget, he said, was pro-poor, tra-la-la-la. A bit like Mrs.Gandhi’s garibi hatao?

It’s nobody’s fault: this is macro economics on a micro stage. Abstruse. Full of strangely incomprehensible sentences: “peak productive rate of customs duty…has come down”. Excuse me? The Hindi explanation by Raman Nanda of this particular comment was far more consumer-friendly (DD). Can anything be done to demystify economics? Or is it that we are dumb and dumber still? Dunno. So face it: the Budget Specials are very necessary and good-looking too with so many smart graphics, but they’re not for ordinary folk. None of us should be ashamed to admit that here, the gap separating THEM fromUS is wider than that between earnings and expenditure. Howzzatt?

Also, the overall coverage was unusually confusing on account of people not being where they normally are: Raghav Bahl was on DD instead of BBC, Vinod Dua was on Zee India instead of DD or Sony, Rajat Sharma was on DD instead of STAR, Rahul Dev was on Zee India instead of DD, and Karan Thapar was to appear on BBC, instead of DD. Only Prannoy Roy and T.N.Ninan were where they always belong: together.

Women. There weren’t too many. Only Isher Ahluwalia; only Zee India began with another woman, economist Rajaramani on its panel. Early on, DD had six big men in big, dark suits, all seated in a row. Enough to frighten a grown up woman!

In terms of coverage, DD and STAR News followed the principles of providing highlights, analysing the provisions with a bevy of experts, soliciting reactions from around the country and the world. STAR and to a lesser degree DD, spent the earlier part of the week in preview programmes. Zee India launched itsoffensive with a series of discussions from 7 am on Saturday. It didn’t bother with budget highlights but went straight to reactions and phone-in questions from the public.

Can’t leave you without a li’l about Kabir Bedi. His long-awaited appearance on The Bold and Beautiful (STAR) is evidently not a sight for sore eyes. He tried to gaze deeply and hungrily into Hunter Tylo’s eyes the first time they met. A trifle impossible when both hers were steadfastly and tightly closed. She would flutter them open but as briefly as the shutter of a camera. Could it be that she didn’t like what she saw — or was she too sick to care?

Either way, she soon saw things differently. Even as you are reading this, Tylo-Taylor is about to accept a proposal of marriage from Bedi. So obviously Taylor likes what she sees now. He’s been in love with the Beauty since she was Sleeping. Talk of slumbering passions. Now he’s playing Majnu to her amnesiac Laila. Frankly, between you and the trade deficit (!), he can’t act tolengthen his beard. But his voice — mmmmn, cavernous deep.