Sinha146;s magic: Walking into every disaster possible

Former finance minister Yashwant Sinha8217;s biggest tragedy, it can be said in retrospect, was that he was really unlucky. Pokharan, Kargil, September 11, the US travel advisories 8212; you name the economic disaster, and Sinha was there, bang in the middle of it. To that extent, the fact that under his stewardship, the economy remains in deep trouble, certainly has something to do with this. Naturally, on his departure, there8217;s no one to cry for him. Everyone loves a winner, and that8217;s why they loved Jagjivan Ram 8212; as defence minister, he won a war, and as agriculture minister, he always got good monsoons.

But this apart, what was Sinha8217;s record? Mixed. Brilliant in parts, but this was blotched by major failures in delivery. That8217;s got to do with the fact that the NDA is a big coalition with conflicting pulls and pressures, Sinha8217;s camp argues in defence. True, but till Arun Shourie showed how, did anyone think big-ticket disinvestment was even a possibility 8212; even he faced the same pressures from within the NDA. Two budgets ago, by contrast, Sinha galvanised the stock markets by promising major labour reforms, but till date these have not been concretised. Sinha, of course, has had major reforms to his credit. He successfully piloted the insurance bill, and the housing sector got a big boost with the repeal of the urban land ceiling act and a host of other incentives, and Sinha8217;s dogged refusal to accommodate petroleum minister Ram Naik played a major role in the oil sector being freed up on schedule. And it was Sinha8217;s decision to levy a cess on diesel and petrol sales that created the fund to set off India8217;s biggest-ever national highways development programme.

And then, Sinha went and botched up his record by constantly raising tax surcharges to cover his department8217;s inability to raise taxes elsewhere. And it was under Sinha8217;s watch that some of the biggest scams in recent times were found to be flourishing. UTI, for instance, was found to be basing several of its investment decisions on the diktats of scamster Ketan Parekh, and US64 went bust while, all the while, the finance ministry was clearly in the dark about the happenings in India8217;s largest mutual fund. Customs chief B.P. Verma was arrested for corruption, as was chief excise commissioner Someshwar Mishra. It didn8217;t help that Chief Vigilance Commissioner N. Vittal publicly said he had warned the finance ministry not to make Verma the customs chief as his record was questionable.

At the end of his tenure, sadly, Mr Rollback is a term that still appears to best describe Sinha and his tenure.