Tags:
Journalism of Courage
The predominantly grey-haired men in grey suits who make up the prime minister8217;s economic advisory council are veritable economic warriors. To say their pre-budget recommendations are bold is to understate it. Daring to the point of recklessness8217; may be more appropriate given that there is scarcely a constituency in the country that will not be outraged by one or more of their proposals. And the PM8217;s wise men know it. Hence the caveat accompanying their advice: our proposals may appear to be politically sensitive, they say, but they are essential 8220;if we are to make really credible progress8221;. Cut and slash interest rates on small savings, food and fertiliser subsidies, small-scale sector reservations and import tariffs, they say, and raise passenger fares and charges for water, electricity and kerosene. Luckily for these eminences they are mere economists, not political leaders to whom is left the politically tricky task of implementing the proposals starting April 1.
The recommendations are not new. Most have been made often enough in one forum or another. For example, very similar ideas on curtailing food procurement operations and the size of the Food Corporation of India were last heard at the meeting of the Bharatiya Janata Party8217;s national executive. It is frequently pointed out, to little effect, that SSI reservations are illogical and strangle export growth. Exhortations that politics should not influence railway budgets are heard every year. Taken singly none of the warriors8217; proposals are startling; they have lain around for a long time waiting to be adopted by the political leadership. What is remarkable is delivering the cut-and-slash proposals altogether like an aggressive trumpet blast for market reform on the eve of the Union Budget. It may not have been the intention to upstage the Economic Survey and Yashwant Sinha although that is the effect.
