The Delhi High Court judgment on Section 377 and the Economic Survey surfaced on the same day. But there is another parallel too.

First, on the Survey, the media has gone gaga about the big-bang reforms proposed. These reforms are unlikely. Also, one notices a lack of coherence in the Survey. Chapter 1 doesn’t go with the rest of the Survey. It is almost as if Chapter 1 was added on as an after-thought. Even if there had been no Chapter 1, the Survey would have read as a continuous whole, since Chapter 2 has an introductory section too.

The big-bang reforms people are talking about begin with Chapter 2, and are mostly (but not invariably) concentrated in that chapter. Chapter 1 is pedestrian run-of-the-mill stuff.

The Economic Survey is read by the Finance Minister before finalization. But which Finance Minister has the time to read all of the Survey? While things have clearly changed this year, and one can detect a single hand of continuity, the Chief Economic Adviser (CEA) earlier used to write Chapter 1 and other advisers wrote other chapters. That is, while the other chapters were vetted by the CEA, Chapter 1 was vetted by the FM. Did Pranab Mukherjee therefore read only the pedestrian Chapter 1 and was blissfully unaware of the big-bang reforms proposed elsewhere?

Essentially, reforms are about giving people the right to choose, limiting the role of state control in determining choice. But the political classes have a patronizing characteristic: 'We can’t give people the right to choose. They are irresponsible. They don’t know what is good for them.'

... contd.