Populism, not politics, missing in Budget

It’s the missing “P” of populism. No giveaways, welfare schemes, tax cuts, or exemptions. Nothing.
 

Read this Budget, therefore, as a declaration of victory a month before the Lok Sabha elections are announced.
 

This is something old-timers like us have forgotten to expect. Later generations, or those that started voting 1989 onwards, wouldn’t have seen something that looks so bland. This blandness is the statement of electoral confidence and the key message from the Budget.

It was quite some time back that a pre-election Budget ceased to be a mere vote-on-account, to carry on government spending until the newly elected