Budget 2007-08; Business as usual

New Delhi, March 12: "This is an important event in the democratic diary of India”, said Yogendra Yadav, in a panel discussion held by the Centre for Budget and Governance Accountability (CBGA) on March 1^st at the India Habitat Centre. Mani Shankar Aiyer himself said, “The least reliable part of the budget is the allocations for the North Eastern Regions”, who is also the Minister for the Ministry of Development of North Eastern Regions. He also added, “What is good about this budget is that there is little boasting about India Shining and no major waste, except the allocations for Commonwealth Games”. While both Mani Shankar Aiyer and Gurcharan Das argued that “Spending and allocations are important, but the most important issue today is strengthening delivery mechanisms”, Jayati Ghosh argued strongly that greater allocations is also a must. She said, “Why we are creating so much fuss about allocations when the allocations are so meager – the government spends just three rupees per child on education in any case, which is just not adequate”. This has been one of the classic points of disagreement between the two streams of economics.

The panel discussion, the only of its kind that looks at the budget for what it has to offer to common people, and not for its impact on stock exchange or corporate interests – brought together an interesting blend of people with radically different perspectives. If on one side there was Manishankar Shankar Aiyer, who was representing the government, on the other, there was strong representation of the opposition parties by Mohammad Salim (CPI) and Digvijay Singh (JDU) who came down heavily on the government. There were also strong disagreements between Gurcharan Das, a strong proponent of neo-liberal economies and Jayati Ghosh, Professor of JNU, one of the leading voices against neo-liberal economics. Medha Patkar, a well known activist, came down heavily on the government, for its poor commitment to the poor and marginalised.

A budget cannot be pro-aam aadmi until and unless its preparation is made open to the Civil Society and not confine to a handful of corporate giants and bureaucrats. This event was a step in this direction involving equipping the aam aadami with a succinct analysis of the Union Budget and raising people’s voices which is often ignored. A huge crowd of more than 350 people from diverse fields gathered for this live discussion to understand and question the implications of the budget, not on stock markets but on social sectors such as health, agriculture and education. A unique Response to Union Budget 2007-08 was launched by Jayati Ghosh, which is a comprehensive document with detailed response prepared by the organisation overnight. Praveen Jha, the economic advisor of CBGA pointed out that CBGA will take this forward by lobbying with parliamentarians and other decision makers on our key demands to make budget more pro-people and pro-poor.

Source: Centre for Budget and Governance Accountability