Mumbai: As Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman presented her eighth consecutive Union Budget proposals on Saturday morning, did she mean what she said? Or did she say what she meant? Answer: mainly no, and a bit of yes. She didn’t say so, but the people of Bihar have every reason to rejoice. She got the longest applause when she announced changes in the personal income tax regime that would benefit a big section of the middle class, however you choose to categorize this section of the population.

The FM announced a slew of measures to benefit micro, small, and medium enterprises, with easier access to credit being the most important. As for others she named, she merely paid lip service to them: the poor, farmers, and women. In real terms, the Indian government’s budgetary allocations for education, healthcare, Dalits, tribals, subsidies on food and cooking gas, and rural employment have shrunk in nominal and real terms (that is, after adjusting for inflation) or, at best, remained stagnant. This is what the fine print of the budget documents indicates.

The FM, and everyone else, wants India to be a viksit (developed) nation. But like the US$5 trillion economy that was supposed to happen this year, the claims made by the FM and her boss, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, would remain a mirage for quite some time to come, perhaps as long as two decades from now when India celebrates a century of her political independence. This is not what one is saying but what the government’s chief........

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