Fussbudget

Same old, same old. Every year, every single year, at exactly this time the whole damn country goes totally berserk about this thing called the budget. Every single television channel goes on and on about it, shoving all other programming off the air; the newspapers can’t seem to think of anything else. What’s the big deal anyway? Don’t other countries have “budgets”? They don’t seem to fuss about it like this (except maybe the Brits). And then there’s the damned Railway budget a day before. Hoo ha. Why not an airplane budget, or an automobile budget? Actually, in this country we need a bicycle budget and a bullock cart budget.

I wonder what exactly our beloved FM (that’s Finance Minister, guys, not a radio station) does. As far as I can tell he spends an entire year preparing for The Budget, delivers it, and then goes on to do the same thing all over again.

Time was when the late Nani Palkhivala filled an entire stadium when he spoke on the budget, and thousands of people crowded in to listen to him dissect the thing. Imagine. A whole stadium. That’s like someone filling Wembley or the Royal Albert Hall or Madison Square Garden.

And what difference did any of it make, the budget, Palkhivala or anything else? What difference does it make even today? The rich are still getting a whole lot richer, and the poor a whole lot poorer. Wonderful.

India shining.