Arun Shourie puts the Budget to the aam aadmi test and argues why the UPA fails miserably

The document is Implementation of Budget 2007-2008, and is one of the important documents that have been distributed with this year’s Budget. ‘In keeping with the endeavour of the Government of India to promote transparency and accountability,’ writes the Finance Minister, P. Chidambram, in his Foreword, the document has been compiled. It contains ‘the status of implementation of announcements’ that were made in the preceding Budget. ‘I am happy to place this brochure before the House,’ he writes.

The item for which those words appear in bold italics – it is one of the several items for which they appear in the same way – is ‘Mumbai as an International Centre.’

‘Action completed’? Has Mumbai become the International Financial Centre that the Government had said it would be made?

You will recall that over the last three years, three big announcements have been made for Mumbai – and each of them has been splashed across our papers in huge, bold headlines. Mumbai was inundated by a traumatic flood on 26 July, 2005. The Government announced a special package of Rs. 1,260 crore to ‘rejuvenate’ the Mithi river – this was to be one of the steps that would prevent that kind of a flood. Not one paisa has been disbursed since then.

Next, the Prime Minister announced that funds would be given to metamorphose Mumbai into another Shanghai. Not one paisa has been given since that announcement. A power-point presentation has indeed been made to the high-ups – it is a compilation of sundry projects that have been conceived and commenced by a succession of governments.

And then came the announcement that Mumbai would be made into an International Financial Centre. Another ‘special package’ was announced – to much fanfare: a ‘special package’ of Rs. one thousand crore. For months, my friend and colleague, Kirit Somaya tried to find out how much money has actually reached the Maharashtra Government. Nobody would tell him. But he is not the kind to give up. He filed an application under the Right to Information Act – just imagine the commitment of our governments to -- what was that expression of Chidambram? -- ‘transparency and accountability’ that to get to know how much they have given in their generosity for such a worthy cause, a citizen has to take recourse to the Right to Information Act! Kirit strained for two months. Eventually, he received the information in July 2007: the total amount that has been given by the Centre is Rs. sixteen crore sixteen lakh.

The proclamation? Rs. one thousand crore. Actually given? Rs. sixteen crore sixteen lakh.

Then how is the ‘Action’ ‘completed’?

That tract of transparency and accountability explains:

‘The Report of the High Powered Expert Committee to make Mumbai an International Financial Centre has been released. The full text of the report has also been placed on the Ministry’s website… inviting feedback from the public.

‘A presentation was made to the Prime Minister on August 24, 2007. The recommendations identified for priority implementation have been circulated to the concerned regulators/agencies for comments/views on the process of implementing the recommendations. An Action Plan has been drawn up and is being implemented.’

Thus,

•Report received

•Put on the Ministry’s website

•A presentation made to the PM

•Recommendations circulated to regulators/agencies for comments/views

Action completed!! Not that the project has been implemented. Not even that ‘the process’ by which it will be implemented has been settled. Just that the ‘comments/views’ on the process by which it is to be implemented have been invited.’ But ‘Action Completed’, it is!

And the sequence is typical. Given the concern of this Government for the poor, it is de rigueur to talk about the unorganized sector, and that is what Chidambram did in his Budget for 2005/06. ‘The unorganized or informal sector accounts for 92 per cent of the employment and absorbs the bulk of the annual accretion to the labour force,’ he said. The ‘possible solution’ is PURA or Provision of Urban Amenities in Rural Areas. A Commission has proposed action along these lines. And then the typical commitment, much praised recently for cleverness: ‘Once the proposals are firmed up, Government will take up the creation of a few growth poles, as pilot projects, in 2005-06.’

President Abdul Kalam was still in office. He used to propagate this idea of Professor PV Indiresen. Hence, a few ‘pilot projects’, but those also in the indefinite future – when the proposals have been firmed up. Kalam gone, PURA gone. No mention in subsequent budgets.

But commitment to the poor continues. The poor are at the heart of the Government’s thinking, the Prime Minister and the Finance Minister have proclaimed times without number; to the poor, what matters most is food; for delivering food to them, the Public Distribution System is the key; and for making that system effective, the key is to improve the working of the Fair Price Shops.

‘Fair price shops constitute the backbone of the food security system for the poor,’ Chidambram told Parliament in his Budget for 2004/05. ‘We shall address the weaknesses in the system and strengthen public distribution,’ he promised. ‘I shall return to this subject a little later.’ That was in para 15. You had to wait for 60 paragraphs to learn what Government would do on this vital matter. An idea has been suggested, he said – that Government should distribute food stamps to the poor, and the poor should be able to go to any designated shop and procure the food. And so, another pilot: ‘I propose to introduce a pilot scheme for distributing food stamps, instead of distributing food through fair price shops, in two or three contiguous districts in a selected state. I sincerely hope that one of the States will come forward to associate with the Central Government in this experiment.’