 "Nirmala Sitharaman, Budget 2019")
While transiting resplendently from the passé briefcase to the bright, trendy bahi khata for carrying her Budget papers, the new Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman decided to give the short shrift to what must be at the heart of the Budget. Neither the two parts of her speech nor the explanatory memorandum contain statements of government income and expenditure by major heads; there is only a passing reference to the deficit. Some learned commentators have hailed this as a welcome change, but I must concur with the observation of the former finance minister P Chidambaram (with whom I often disagree): “Has
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