Rollback Irks Politicians Too

When you try to please every one, you end up pleasing no one. This was the bitter homily read out to finance minister Yashwant Sinha on the sidelines of Parliament and the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) summit as reactions came in on the rollback of some budget proposals.

Samajwadi Party's Amar Singh told Business Standard that he was disappointed but not surprised that the BJP had forced Sinha to go back on some tough measures he had taken in the budget. "My sympathies are with the finance minister. He was trying to set things right through the budget, but his party made him execute a U-turn. This is unfortunate," Singh said.

Sitaram Yechury of CPI-M said there was hardly any doubt that the finance minister would take away what he had given back to the middle-class through administered measures later this year. "Make no mistake about it. The finance minister is alleviating no one's pain. The management of the economy is a disaster for the salaried class people any way. Apart from being a mockery of the budget, these measures show the ad hocism in the BJP's approach," he said.

Rural development minister Venkiah Naidu said the government had to listen to all sections of the people when it made the budget. If there were some things that did not suit the people, the finance minister got the chance to set them right before the passage of the Finance Bill. That is exactly what Sinha had done, he said.

But, M S Aiyar of Congress asked if no one, including his own party, was happy about the budget the finance minister had presented, who was the budget meant for? The general opinion among industrialists was that Sinha had made no one happy with the rollbacks. All that he had been able to achieve was damage to his credibility.