What Rahul Gandhi didn't say about Arun Jaitley's first budget

(Disclaimer: While we wish Rahul Gandhi was availableto give us an analysis of the budget, we had to make do with what we believed he would have said. The opinions in this article are purely the author’s)

A two-hour long budget speech? Mr Finance Minister, I don’t know whether your budget was good or bad, but you gave me a real hard time. With all those cameras focusing on me after I was caught taking a catnap just the other day, it was a dreadful two hours of my life.

I did not like your budget, Sir. It lacked vision. Your budget was full of populist measures and nothing for the common man.

Why did I hate your budget? To understand that, you have to understand a little bit about who Rahul Gandhi is and what Rahul Gandhi’s circumstances have been. If you delve into that, you will get an answer to the question of what Rahul Gandhi is scared of and what he is not scared of.

The real question is, what am I doing sitting in Parliament? You are the Finance Minister. When you were small, you must have said to yourself: I want to do something. So, you decided to become a politician at some point. Why did you do that?

You announced a Rs 200 crore budget allocation for Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel’s statue. How can you do that? The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) does not even understand Patel’s ideology. He was a Congress leader. How can you erect his statue without understanding him?

The government has decided to allot Rs 150 crore for the safety of women in large cities. The launch ofBeti Bachao, BetiPadhao Yojana is also a good move. The safety of women is a very important issue– this is exactly what Rahul Gandhi wanted to do. Rahul Gandhi and millions of youngsters in this country want to change the way the system in this country works. What Rahul Gandhi wants to do is empower the women in this country.We talk about India being a superpower. We can only be half a superpower if our women are not empowered.

The proposal to set aside a sum of Rs 1,000 crore for the ‘one rank, one pension policy’ is a smart move. But whose idea was that? Of course, mine. I am the soldier of the Congress party. Ask my party leaders, and they will tell you that the policy decision was mine.

But, what about empowerment of youth, sir? And, what about RTI? You didn’t mention RTI even once in your budget. Every single thing we have ever done is to empower people. Why didn’t that find a mention in your budget?

You spoke about boosting the manufacturing sector. But, that also, was my idea. I have said earlier that I want to make India at least as big a manufacturing power as China.

Mr Finance Minister, you have claimed a take lot of anti-poverty measures in your budget. But, you must remember, poverty is just a state of mind. It does not mean scarcity of food, money or material things. If one possesses self-confidence, then we can overcome poverty. Yes, you heard me right.

Thank you for your budget. But I think I would have done a better job if I was given the chance.