Budgeted Populism

Every year, there is fever pitch expectation and anxiety over the budget. This being the election year, there was expectation of a populist to please all budget from NDA. And the government has not disappointed. Interim Finance Minister Piyush Goyal’s maiden budget is almost please all and makes an all guns blazing pitch to woo two big electorates of the government –farmers and the marginalised. Alas the middle class, or at least most of it, has been left wanting in this whole exercise, as there is little for them at least in the interim budget. By all counts, the farmers have emerged as the most pampered lot in this budget with a lot going for them. That includes a minimum income scheme for them as well as sops for those engaged in animal husbandry. The government has also magnanimously loosened its purse strings for the poor and marginalised with the announcement of the...