The Hindu : National : Thiruvalluvar, Dickens and a bit of Bollywood

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Friday, Jul 09, 2004

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National

Thiruvalluvar, Dickens and a bit of Bollywood

By Neena Vyas

NEW DELHI, JULY 8. A little bit of Bollywood, a little bit of Dickens and a little more of the Tamil poet Thiruvalluvar spiced up the two-hour long Budget presentation by the Union Finance Minister, P. Chidambaram, here in the Lok Sabha today.

There were great expectations from the Budget — the first by the new Manmohan Singh Government. Hence, Mr. Chidambaram compared himself to the Dickensian character Pip for whom "redemption lay in good deeds, not good words." Saying this, he took everyone's breath away by announcing that those with a taxable income up to Rs. one lakh would not have to pay any income tax and that more than 1crore of the 2.7 crore tax assessees would get relief.

But the faces on the Opposition benches remained glum and unmoved even as the ruling party MPs exhorted them to "clap and feel good," reminding them of their election slogan that went horribly wrong. It was only when Mr. Chidambaram announced an increase in the rate of service tax and said he would bring into the net many new services, including those provided by opinion pollsters, were there peals of laughter from both sides of the House. After all, opinion pollsters had led the entire political class up the garden path during the last Lok Sabha election, and none was ready to shed tears over the decision to make them pay a tax on their services.

Surprisingly, and unlike the previous Budget days in Parliament, a number of seats, especially on the Opposition benches, remained vacant today. It was not before 12 noon when Mr. Chidambaram was one hour into the Budget speech that the visitors' galleries became full. Prominent among those who had come to see the "show" were members of the Finance Minister's family — his wife, daughter, son and daughter-in-law. In the past, invariably on Budget day one would see six or seven MPs squeezed into a bench meant for four or five. Clearly, today many preferred to watch the proceedings on television.

Noises over Arunachal

Even before Mr. Chidambaram rose to present the Budget, the Opposition began making some noises about Arunachal Pradesh. Breaking the convention, the Speaker, Somnath Chatterjee, allowed the Leader of the Opposition, L.K. Advani, to make his point briefly, and he did. The Government, Mr. Advani said, should make a statement on the constitutional position in Arunachal Pradesh where the Governor, V.C. Pandey, has now said that he had signed "under duress" a report recommending the imposition of President's rule on the State. The Speaker then firmly told the Opposition that the subject must be closed for now even as they shouted "shame, shame."

Mr. Chidambaram rose to speak but his opening remark that the election mandate was a "vote for Sonia Gandhi" drew loud shouts of "no, no" from the BJP benches. But the ruling party MPs were quick to join in to jeer the Opposition before the Speaker appealed to all to "set the standards." After this, it was more or less smooth sailing for Mr. Chidambaram, with just the occasional remark from here or there, and his crisp presentation meant there were no dozing heads in the Lok Sabha.

Some senior leaders — the former Prime Minister, Chandra Shekhar, the former Cabinet Ministers, George Fernandes and Nitish Kumar and the Human Resource Development Minister, Arjun Singh, who is a Rajya Sabha MP — preferred the anonymity of the back benches. Glamour was not lacking — film star Jayaprada sat next to the Telugu Desam Party leader, Yerran Naidu, and Raj Babbar sauntered in wearing jeans. But right in the front row, the Congress president, Sonia Gandhi, sat in a dark blue sari and a green blouse facing the former Prime Minister, Atal Bihari Vajpayee, across the well of the House. The Prime Minister, Manmohan Singh, sat attentive throughout, and Mr. Chidambaram referred to him twice to acknowledge the "benefit of his guidance."

The Left MPs were appreciative, especially when he announced an Investment Commission and a kind of a revival package for Hindustan Antibiotics, but the CPI (M) MP, Gurudas Dasgupta, made known his unhappiness over the absence of any increase in the interest rates on provident funds. That the Finance Minister has had time to notice what has been going on in Bollywood became apparent when he responded with a "main hoon na (I am there)" — the name of a Hindi film starring Shah Rukh Khan — to soothe an agitated Bharatiya Janata Party MP, B.C. Khanduri, who demanded a package for the public sector enterprise, IDPL, too.

Poetry was reserved for the very end, when Mr. Chidambaram quoted a couplet from the Tamil classic Thirukkural to say: "They are good rulers who observe ethics, commit no crime, and walk the path of honour and dignity ... " He left the House with those wise words saying if we bring thought and compassion to governance, we can walk the path of honour and dignity and make the future happen. After that there were greetings and greetings and more greetings for Mr. Chidambaram.

The Prime Minister and Ms. Gandhi waited to congratulate him before leaving the House and it was time for all the politicians to make a beeline for the television cameras and the scribes outside to give their "bytes" and their thoughts on the Budget.

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