Budgeting for polls: With one eye on Delhi, claims and promises galore

Not only Opposition, RSS wing too protests PSU divestment plans

After listening to 160 minutes of Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman’s Budget speech, treasury and opposition MPs trooped out of the Lok Sabha trying to decipher the central message of Budget 2020-21. Some with keener interest in ancient history said they were surprised the FM suggested the hieroglyphs on Harappan seals had been deciphered.

The Narendra Modi government had presented its 2015 Budget a fortnight after its drubbing in the Delhi Assembly polls, jettisoning its promise of reform to turn to "garib kalyan", or welfare of the poor, as its leitmotif.

Five years on, the Delhi Assembly polls, a week away,