The Great Budget Show

It’s like this: everything is beautifully analysed but little is explained by anchors, reporters, economists or technocrats, so that the Congress’ aam aadmi — for whom these budgets have been designed — understands little of what is being done on his/her behalf.

And when Laloo Prasad Yadav delivers the Railway Budget in Hindi, well, it was all Greek — rather like the Euro 2004 soccer final! Laloo may like to speak in English more often. Since his vocabulary is somewhat limited, his explanations are brief and to the point. When he confided in ‘‘Prannoy-bhai’’ that ‘‘not for next five years, but one day I will become (Prime Minister)’’, nothing could have been clearer than his ultimate ambition (NDTV 24X7).

Nobody took the Railway Minister very seriously. That’s because they seldom take Laloo Yadav seriously. Roy and Sardesai barely hid their smiles while Aaj Tak made him look absurd seated in a mock train engine. Yet, Laloo chugs along, cheerfully, and though you were not entirely convinced whether he knew what he was talking about — especially on financing his schemes — you kept listening. He’s a TV natural.

P Chidambaram’s speech in Parliament was straightforward compared to what followed during the day/night analysis. It’s only when the economists spoke languages — as opposed to economics — that we understood their opinion of the budget: ‘‘opportunity lost,’’ pronounced Suman Bery on CNBC, ‘‘not a dream, not a nightmare,’’ said Bibek Debroy on Headlines Today, ‘‘nuts and bolts budget,’’ proclaimed Swaminathan Aiyar (Star News). From this we deduced that no one was sad, but none were happy either.

Next on were the industrialists. Watching them on TV, Thursday, you began to suspect they had watched a different Budget speech from the economists. Tarun Das said it was a budget with ‘‘an element of a vision’’, this is a Budget to ‘‘build Bharat’’, thought Sunil Mittal, ‘‘loose script of a new story… strategically brilliant,’’ admired Sanjay Goenka, ‘‘shown great consistency,’’ added Gautam Thapar (CNBC). So what was it and whom should we believe?

To the average, ill-informed viewer, the great budget show (that for some unknown reason runs throughout the day), is an occasion for the economic fraternity to indulge in a little sibling rivalry publicly and show off its expertise, while you watch in awe and puzzlement. Nowhere was this more apparent than in the interviews with the Finance Minister. On NDTV 24×7 and CNBC, T N Ninan and Raghav Behl, respectively, were intent on grilling the Minister for dinner. You could tell they were asking him uncomfortable questions, challenging his figures, you enjoyed the intellectual sparring without quite grasping its meaning.

This has been the most avidly discussed budget — before and after — in the last six years. It was also the first time that the various economic government secretaries did not rush to Doordarshan’s studio as soon as Chidambaram’s speech ended to reel off statistical data in support of the budget. A wise decision: enough people were already doing that.

As for the Prime Minister, he confined himself to an interview with DD News but the gentleman interviewing him was so overcome by the occasion, he spent most of the time with his mouth and eyes wide open, unable to ask appropriate questions.