Populist Budgets don't win elections: Will Jaitley heed lessons of history?

Populist Budgets before a general election have worked only once, the first time, in 1970

Arun Jaitley has been a good finance minister so far. But the fiscal deficit target of 3.2 per cent of gross domestic product (GDP) is not going to be met this year.

Never mind, it's no big deal. A few points this way or that makes no difference because accurate measurement is nearly impossible anyway. Too many revisions take place.

But by how much will it increase by in 2018-19? We don't know yet. But we can hazard a guess: By a full per cent at least, ending up somewhere near or over five per cent when the final Budget