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Journalism of Courage
Lobby language
In the Yashwant Sinha Budget, obvious concessions to a select group of favoured individuals and companies suggests some high-power lobbying as in the good old pre-liberalisation days. The import duty on paraxylene, an ingredient for synthetic fibres, has been reduced from 15 per cent to 5 per cent. Caprolactum, the raw material for nylon yarn, has been reduced from 30 per cent to 25 per cent. The excise duty on alcohol-based toilet preparations has been reduced from 100 per cent to 50 per cent. The customs duty on paper and paper board has been increased from 20 per cent to 30 per cent. The move to delicence petroleum refineries will benefit only one private company. While this budget has widened the net for service taxes, the existing service tax on caterers and pandal contractors has been abolished.
What has confused those pointing out the quid pro quo nexus, is the curious reduction in duty on light weight coated paper weighing up to 51 grams per square metre. The obvious gainer is a weekly magazine, which has been a trenchant critic of the Government, and which has been using the paper. The loser is its rival, a weekly which has emerged as the loyal standard bearer and apologist for the BJP Government, but cannot use the superior paper because of its larger circulation.
Glossy edge
The reduction in duty on glossy magazine paper has been the cause of a major spat in the corridors of power between the go-getter editor of the large-circulation but not-so-glossy weekly and a senior mandarin in the FinanceMinistry, whom the editor accused of quietly inserting the special benefit to the rival magazine in the Budget speech. News of the slanging match is being relayed in awed whispers by bureaucrats, since the heated argument took place in the presence of a large number of officials. The two antagonists are both very powerful and till the quarrel they were thought to be as thick as thieves.
The bureaucrat has remained top dog no matter which party came to power. He leads such a charmed life that even the recent goof-up over the roll up and down of the petrol prices did not dent his Teflon image. The editor is equally influential. He stations himself at the residences of the people who matter, including the Prime Minister, and gives the impression that without his assent nothing in government moves. Which is why his magazine proprietor now wants to know if he is so close to the powers that be, how come the tax benefits have gone to the rival!
Schizophrenic Govt
The Government8217;s decision to patch upwith Suzuki was a setback for the BJP8217;s Swadeshi group, which believed it had convinced Industries Minister Sikander Bakht to side with Maruti managing director R.S.S.L.N. Bhaskarudu. But the sudden reversal of the Government stand took even Bakht by surprise. The decision was made entirely by the PMO, which wanted to send the right signals to foreign investors. Bhaskarudu who was attending a funeral, did not have a clue that he was being sacrificed.
The schism in the Government over economic policy was evident also when the PMO instructed Doordarshan to include Jaswant Singh, who was denied the Finance portfolio thanks to the last-minute intervention of the RSS, to be placed in the same slot as Yashwant Sinha in its budget analysis programmes.
Stalemate continues
8220;You are looking subdued sir, you are more quiet than you used to be,8221; one of the Jayalalitha band of MPs remarked sympathetically to the Prime Minister when the the Tamil Nadu contingent met him in the Cabinet room last week.Vajpayee jokingly admitted that it was a much easier to lead delegations as opposition leader than to head the Government, particularly with the AIADMK adding to his problems.
If Jayalalitha has once again pulled back from the brink of bringing down the Government, it is simply because the Congress has declined to join forces with her. Sonia Gandhi8217;s hesitation is not because of any deal with the BJP, but because she realises that Jayalalitha would be a human bomb for her too.
The Congress game plan is to try and cobble together a majority which is not vulnerable to Jayalitha. The anti-BJP forces are confident that they can wean away the four MPs of the National Conference, the seven from the North-East and the seven of the Trinamool Congress. But that still doesn8217;t add up to a majority, if Jayalalitha votes the other way. Other BJP allies from the Samata Party to the HLD, BJD and TDP are not so easy to woo since their fight is with the Congress in their respective home states.
