Sachin or Pranab, India lost in both cases!

In a country, where media and the people are divided – which is a greater news – Sachin Tendulkar’s losing century or India’s losing century via another idiotic budget, which pushes the economy in a greater inflationary spiral, the day must have been extraordinary.

Rajdeep Sardesai is lucky (see his tweet below) that he can make quick decisions between head and heart and see the frivolous take precedence.  The world and coming years for the common man may not be so easy in terms of decision making.

The new budget by Pranab Mukherjee has brought in bad news for the middle class, they are basically screwed.  Instead of writing my own analysis, I wanted to bring the reality through some of the reactions and headlines:

Hindustan Times

Walled in on four sides – by politics, slowing economic growth, high and unrelenting inflation, and inability to balance government spending with revenues – finance minister Pranab Mukherjee had little room for manoeuvre.

The hike in the excise duty by two percentage points has irked consumer durable firms, which expect to pass on the rate hike to consumers. This will lead to a rise in the price of products such as refrigerators, washing machines and microwave oven, among others

Facebook Reactions

Anurag S: Economic highlights : Govt increases the interest rates on homes and auto 13 times from 2010 and makes a healthy market diseased. All to tame inflation. Now from April 2012 with new budget they increase excise and service taxes..Again contributing to inflation. Life in India has been made tough by idiots managing our economy! And UPA is the one which silently eats away the country like termite.

Manu A: Can any one come up with a workable suggestion to bring about major change in our political system?….According To My Point Of View – Our Budget Says That: those days are coming soon when we have to pay rent even for our survival to the govt.

Twitter

Rajdeep Sardesai: Still not sure what’s my top story for India at 9, heart says Sachin, head budget. Tempted to go with the heart.

WSJ – Real Time: “What do I have to do with the budget?” says an auto-rickshaw driver in Delhi. Does #Budget2012 matter to the aam admi? http://on.wsj.com/wA8OcW

Shekhar Kapur: The #Budget proves tht Coalition politics r killing India‘s future. Its just power for power’s sake without any vision

Retweeted many times: India‘s budget plan sends stocks tumbling http://bit.ly/zexcFB

Indianewsbot says now Jewellers are mad over the budget: Budget 2012: Jewellers go on flash strike to protest tax proposals: The All-India Gems and Jewellery Trad… http://bit.ly/y6bxj5 #india

Other reactions:

In his reaction, Subramanian Swamy, who has taught economics at Harvard says:

Terming the Union Budget as “ridiculous”, Janata Party president Subramanian Swamy on Saturday said that the fiscal proposals unless rectified will “doom the economy”.

“The 2012-13 Budget figures and numbers are all cockeyed. For example, fiscal deficit of 4.79 lakh crore rupees in 2012-13 targeted to be 5.1% of GDP means a GDP growth of 20.6% in one year. This is ridiculous even in current prices,” he said in a statement in New Delhi.