INDIAN BUDGETS NOTHING BUT A SHOWOFF OF VERBOSITY OF POLITICIANS

Indian masses have seen budgets being presented and passed every year and it is always the same old story of high sounding words with little of any substance being meant. The government and the treasury benches are always gaga over whatever is presented and the nation has witnessed it every year. The opposition concentrates on mud slinging. We have seen these slanging matches time and again, year after year and surprisingly the goons and buffoons of Indian polity have been successful in maintaining their status of rulers in spite of their failing to change the lot of the common man or the country.

The railway budget presented in the Indian Parliament today seemed to be a mere exercise of audit of accounts of the year that has gone by and projections of expenditure for the coming year. It is a well known fact, known to every individual citizen of the country including most of the politicians that infrastructure is the most important next gen growth engine of Indian economy but still somehow or the other no real push was given to the railway infrastructure which is perhaps the biggest player in infrastructure.Today the country has National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (NREGA) scheme which is seen by the government as a means of providing employment alone. Why can't it be integrated with development of rail, road and waterway infrastructure. Incidentally the linking of rivers of north and south can be the biggest game changer in the fortunes of India.One can only hope and wish that the general budget does not ignore harnessing of this great potential of road and waterways infrastructure as has been done by the railway minister.

The railway minister's talking of setting up skill improvement centres and utilizing solar energy for  mechanizing remote area railway crossings was quite refreshing. Let us hope that the finance minister takes the cue and takes up these two in a big way in budget, for the potential and advantage of these two can be an additional game changer in the economy of the country.