For Pranab-da, the unkindest cut came from 'Shochin'

It seems fortune plotted against Pranab Mukherjee to rob him of his thunder on budget day this year. As if the disastrous state election showing wasn’t enough, the Dinesh Trivedi-Mamata Banerjee drama, with Trivedi turning into an unlikely hero overnight with his bolder-than-expected Railway Budget, came as an added show-stealer. But the biggest blow of all for Pranab-da was Sachin Tendulkar’s hundredth century, bang on Budget Day, over a year after the Master Blaster scored his last hundred.

Couldn’t Shochin (a true-blue Bong pronunciation of the name) have chosen another day to mark his stamp in history? Here was poor Pranab-da, hemmed in from all sides, trying his level best to save UPA-2 from near collapse, and the cricketing legend who everyone thought was never going to get to that 100-century mark comes up and steals whatever thunder Pranab-da had left.

In fact, by most accounts, the budget was hardly on anyone’s mind as it became clear that perhaps this time, Sachin Tendulkar, would not flatter to deceive and would get to that elusive milestone.

Worse, by the time Pranab-da was coming to the end of Part II of his speech, it became clear that this budget was far from the Big Bang which many hoped he would come up with. After all, it was an occasion which was set up for him. Backroom manoeuvres suggest that the UPA may be keeping a Plan B in place in case Mamata Didi walked off in a huff, and Dinesh Trivedi had set the stage for some possible out-of-the-box moves as well.

But Pranab-da flattered to deceive. In the initial part of his speech he did make the right noises on fiscal consolidation, unveiling five objectives which the government needed to address in the coming fiscal year to set things right. These contained the right words: focus on domestic demand-driven growth recovery, address supply bottlenecks, and create conditions for the rapid revival of high growth in private investment.

But, despite his admission that ‘mere words were not enough’, Pranab-da’s budget scored high on rhetoric, realism and good intent, but low on actual action on the ground. How exactly would he achieve the target of restricting central subsidies to under 2 percent of GDP in 2012-13 and further to 1.75 percent over the next three years? There’s no clear indication.

“I am determined to contain the increasing subsidy burden through measures including increased targeting.” Brownie points for intent, once again. But just that, unfortunately.

By the time people began understanding the fineprint better, Sachin had inched closer to that elusive landmark, and eventually got there. Reports coming in from everywhere by text messages and on social media suggested most offices had shrugged off the banality of the budget and got busy cheering the master for his feat. Pranab-da was left facing the brickbats for letting a big opportunity go by, for being a sore loser and seeking to tax Vodafone-like deals retrospectively (a move most feel may face a tough legal challenge) and for levying a cess on ONGC while asking LIC to buy ONGC stock before the move.

A headline in The Economic Times perhaps summed up the mood on Saturday: “On budget day, Sachin scores,” said the paper, while another related headline said “FM plays safe on a flat pitch.”

Not cricket, Mr Mukherjee may feel. But why blame Shochin, Pranab-da, when you clearly lost the plot and couldn’t play what could have been a historic knock?