An FM's lament

That the life of India’s finance minister isn’t easy is now a truism, thanks to Pranab Mukherjee’s memorable mention while presenting his seventh Budget. But on the sidelines of a post-Budget interview, Mukherjee also recalled how life was less difficult for a Congress finance minister some 30 years ago, which was when he had presented his first Budget. “What was the size of the economy then,” he reflected, before adding that at least running Parliament then was easier. “We had 353 members in the Lok Sabha and 165 in the Rajya Sabha. We used to call it brute majority.” The majority has remained, but the brute is now replaced by a factor that he might have called coalition politics.