The Week That Was
Dear Readers,
I apologise for the long break. but I am now back and hope to keep you all engaged for a while. A lot seemed to have happened in the last seven days. There was the Republic day parade, as expected the truncated version, yet glorious in its pomp and show and display. But what ruined the day was the mayhem around Delhi’s ITO and Redfort: The unfurling of many flags instead of the tricolour. and the brandishing of the swords around. And no matter how much you support the farmers in the current standoff with the government, this act was the lawlessness around the Redfort was an unacceptable deed. No amount of criticism is good enough to condemn the abhorring act. It would be obvious to everyone that it would at the behest of agencies which have inimical designs against the Indian state.
Then there was the presentation of the budget in the parliament, amidst opposition cries about the farm protests. The budget seemed to have cheered at least the stock markets signalling a thumbs up for macroeconomic parameters of the economy. The dampening news that an agriculture cess has been put on petrol and diesel of rupees two and four (approx) respectively, soon got corrected by the government making an announcement that the common man will not pay the price of this cess and the central government would pay this out of their own central excise duty collected. The above-mentioned was a relief as one could even hear the usual upbeat Government supporter Rahul Kanwal of India today lamenting, “ As a middle-income honest tax paying citizen of this country I feel cheated, for both petrol and diesel are at their highest ever prices”, and his anguish was felt by every tax-paying citizen. But the clarification by the government brought some relief to otherwise angered emotions.
The comment I like I most on the budget was by an analyst on India Today TV, who said: “ Usually people celebrate a good budget on the day of the announcement, but mourn for the next 364 days”. This was especially in light of the fact that the budget is all in the fine print and not in the speech that is delivered. And the fine print comes to light a few days later when the euphoria dies down and the reality continues to stay. Similarly, for this budget, a lot will depend on how it unfolds as the days go by.
But for me, the biggest lament was “The Defence Budget” as the biggest budgetary outlay did not even once get a mention in the long budget speech as has become a norm. What surprises me no end is the easy acceptance of this deliberate slip. There is no rancour or debate or demands by either the usually vociferous opposition in the parliament to this lack of importance to the matter of utmost importance: “National Security”.
I got to know from other sources that the budget estimate of the Defence Budget has increased by roughly around 7000 crores and this time it is in the tune of approx 4 lakhs 78 thousand crores as against last years BE of 4 lakh 71 thousand crores. while the increase not even covering the inflationary number yet a lot is in understanding its details. Since I do not have the Defence Services Estimates it is hard for me to give the correct figure. I understand that in spite of the marginal increase in the overall budget there is a 20 % increase on an average in the capital budget head of the defence budget which is heartening to hear. more on this I promise once I get the numbers.
On the international front, two events of the last week are most disturbing. The first being the coup in Myanmar by the military and second is the reneging of the Colombo port agreement by the SriLankan government on an agreement it had signed with India. This going back it is said is at the behest of the Chinese. I promise to write on both these critical events once more details emerge.
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