Left makes right noises over 'people' schemes

POLITICS OF THE BUDGET

When Finance Minister P Chidambaram ended his Budget speech, the maximum number of MPs who came up to shake his hand were from Maharashtra and Gujarat, testifying to the fact the measures he had taken to revive and support the sugar and textiles sectors had gone down well especially with that section in Parliament.

Although most MPs were highly critical of the 0.1 per cent tax on cash withdrawals above Rs 10,000, the Budget was hailed by the United Progressive Alliance and also got cautious endorsement from the Left parties. Education, health and accommodation of the sensitivities of the Left parties were the political hallmark of the Budget.

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh hailed the Budget as "outstanding" and credited Chidambaram with producing a document, which lived up to meet the challenges of the time.

"There must be close co-operation between the Centre and states. The effort will be to work with state governments to make rural life liveable. When 10 million hec-tares come under irrigation, it will change the face of rural India beyond recognition," he said.

The Budget has a number of intensely political moves to make the rural and semi-urban society more inclusive and offers the depressed classes upward mobility. This includes a separate set of papers in the Budget, for the first time, for schemes meant for this section of society, in itself an innovation.

A package of scholarship schemes has been augmented by a short list of institutions of excellence to which those SC and ST students who get admission will be provided with a bigger scholarship tuition fee, living expenses, books and a computer.

He has also introduced 2000 more scholarships for SC and ST students pursuing M Phil and PhD programmes. Allocations in this sector has been raised from Rs 6,018 crore to Rs 6,253 crore.

A similar package of measures has been introduced for minorities, including a percentage of new schools under the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan, budgetary assistance for recruitment of Urdu language teachers in the primary and upper primary level in areas where at least 25 per cent of the population is Urdu-speaking.

Special coaching for the minorities for competitive examinations will now not be limited to government institutions""it will be extended to private sector coaching institutions with the government providing funds to cover the fees for these candidates.

Women and senior citizens got a break in the Budget with higher income tax threshold exemptions (Rs 1.25 lakh and Rs 1.5 lakh, respectively) and Chidambaram promised progressively gender-sensitive grants in all ministries. Schemes for women and children amounted to Rs 10,574 crore last year. This year, it has been raised to Rs 14,379 crore.

In the social sector, it is primary and secondary education that has received a big budgetary fillip. The Budget also provides for two new initiatives to add value to existing ones. The skills development initiative is a new public-private partnership between government and industry.

The Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore, will be developed as an Indian university on a par with Harvard, Cambridge and Oxford, with an allocation of Rs 100 crore.

Goverdhan Mehta, IISc director, said the Rs 100 crore grant promised in the Budget to make the institution "world class" would be used for two purposes: to improve basic physical infrastructure on the campus (some buildings are over five decades old and not functional) and to boost research in areas such as nanotechnology and genomics.

Of all the wish-lists submitted before the Budget, it is the Left parties who have scored the highest strike rate. The Left had written three or four letters to the finance minister about rationalising Customs and excise rates. The Budget brings these duties down to zero.

The Left had harped on increasing rural credit, infrastructure, telecom lines and had sou-ght a rural health mission. The minister has granted them their wish. In return, Chidambaram has mooted, subject to consensus, foreign direct investment in trade, mining and pensions.

His calculation, obviously, is based on some give-and-take. Thus this may not be anathema to the Left any more.

For the first time in several years, almost all the galleries in Parliament were packed to capacity, including the Rajya Sabha gallery that saw industrialists like Anil Ambani, Lalit Suri and Amar Singh busily taking notes. Several Shiv Sena and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) members of the Upper House were also present in the gallery.

The Finance Minister's family including his 86-year-old mother, heard him present the Budget. Son Karti, who was wearing a pink shirt and a pink tie, said he had selected these colours with a specific purpose - being neither Left, nor Right, they summed up the flavour of the Budget his father presented.