Letters: No small feat

A K Bhattacharya's piece, "Overcoming inherent problems" (February 3), is a fair assessment of Arun Jaitley's contribution as finance minister, taking into account that he inherited the poor fiscal health of the economy from the United Progressive Alliance government. His achievements are to be lauded also for the fact that he is probably the first finance minister saddled with additional portfolios - of corporate affairs and information and broadcasting; he also handled defence for a while. He is a political strategist of the present government and is fighting a court case on the Delhi & District Cricket Association scam.

Not that giving Jaitley all these important portfolios is a good distribution of ministerial responsibility. Considering the looming global financial crisis and the need for a path-breaking Budget this year, it would advisable to allot the portfolios other than finance to others as soon as possible.

Jaitley's major failure has been his inability to get the Goods and Services Tax Bill passed by Parliament. This is because of his lack of rapport with the Opposition led by the Congress. When Manmohan Singh was finance minister in 1991, he had the support of the then prime minister, who used his negotiation skills and friendly relationship with Opposition leaders to see the economic reforms through. In Jaitley's case neither he nor Prime Minister Narendra Modi has built that relationship with the Opposition.

It remains to be seen how Jaitley deals with fiscal consolidation when the pressures to adhere to, or enhance, the fiscal targets are equally strong.

Y G Chouksey Pune

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