“A government which robs Peter to pay Paul can always depend on the support of Paul. — George Bernard Shaw
Abdul Qadir | Clarion India
IN our country, everybody is a doctor, lawyer, political commentator and an economist etc. and as such despite my poor knowledge of economics, like any school dropout or holder of MA in all Economics from the start up university, I feel eminently qualified to comment on the Budget presented in 2022 and actually meant for 2047. The next year’s Budget will be for the year 2100 BC. (Besides futuristic budget we can also produce, direct and release a ‘pastic’ budget. Those not familiar with the ever changing terminology must note that ‘Pastic’ means something that relates to past.
Before examining the merits of the Budget, I will like to quote some famous sayings about government and its finances.
“The government is like a baby’s alimentary canal, with a happy appetite at one end and no responsibility at the other.” – Ronald Reagan
“I contend that for a nation to try to tax itself into prosperity is like a man standing in a bucket and trying to lift himself up by the handle.”- Winston Churchill
“A government which robs Peter to pay Paul can always depend on the support of Paul.- George Bernard Shaw
“Foreign aid might be defined as a transfer of money from poor people in rich countries to rich people in poor countries.” – Douglas Casey, a classmate of Bill Clinton at Georgetown University
“Giving money and power to a government is like giving whiskey and car keys to teenage boys.” – P.J. O’Rourke, Civil Libertarian
“The only difference between a tax man and a taxidermist is that the taxidermist leaves the skin.” – Mark Twain
After hearing so much of negativism about governments and their economic policies, it is time to invent ‘goodness’ in the budget on which Finance Minister under the direct guardianship of PM Modi, laboured so hard to produce something which is beyond the comprehension of the world’s best brain. To understand a budget you need not a brain. All that you need is ‘Bhakti unlimited’.
The best thing about this highly ‘futuristic’ budget is that it could have been much worse. By definition, optimist is someone who feeds the crocodile in the hope that it (crocodile) will eat him the last. My case is different. I am colour blind. I see beauty in the most-ugly of things and as such, for me it is a beautiful budget. For a ‘near full’ understanding, it has to be read between the lines and for FULL understanding no reading of the budget is required. I place myself in the category of people who have FULLY understood the budget and for that reason I find myself qualified enough to be the country’s Finance Minister. I know I would never be the FM as there is one person more qualified than me and he is Subramanium Swamy.
Poor Pappu says that there is nothing for the poor in the budget. Nothing could have been farther from truth. The basic thrust of the budget 2022/2047 is to increase the number of poor, not by a few hundreds and thousands but by crores and crores. The greater the number of the poor, the stronger they would be. In a polity where numbers mean more than anything else, the best way to empower the poor is by producing more poor. This can be done domestically and no foreign capital is required for the purpose.
The budget is also being criticised for reducing expenditure on MNREGA. Many of us do not realise that MNREGA workers toil under sub human conditions and as such any increase in allotment for the programme must be regarded as anti national. They can easily find jobs in the Central Vista project. Moreover, unlike MNREGA workers, workers engaged in the Central Vista project get automatic immunity from all strains of the Coronavirus.
Some less informed people have also joined the chorus of ‘budget baite…
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Abdul Qadir is a senior journalist based in Gaya, Bihar. He writes on contemporary politics with an occasional pinch of pun and satire. The views expressed here are author’s personal
