A budget for votes, not reform

摘要

Few finance ministers have the good luck to find their budgets drowned by unconfined national rejoicing. When he unveiled his plans to parliament on February 28th, Jaswant Singh could not have known that a day later triumph over Pakistan in a cricket match would light fireworks across the country. Only the opposition and curmudgeonly economists played party-poopers, stubbornly demanding to know how long his government can keep deferring a serious effort to plug the cavernous hole in its finances.