AA Edit | Poll States: Welcome Lack Of Bias

Short on rhetoric and focused on reform, stability and continuity, the somewhat underwhelming Budget was also surprisingly silent on special measures aimed at this year’s five poll-bound states of West Bengal, Tamil Nadu, Puducherry, Kerala and Assam.

The cynical conclusion that this could be so because the ruling alliance does not fancy its chances much in at least three to four of those five states can be arrived at easily enough because there is a distinct southern and eastern touch to the poll season.

It is, however, to be welcomed if the Union government has deliberately eschewed the temptation of aiming measures or freebies specifically at states going to the polls. It does appear there has been a significant departure from the past regarding announcements favouring poll-bound states.

Regardless of the cost to the exchequer, offers of freebies are coming with the speed of knots this season, which means there is less money for health, education and social sectors. This has been a national trend for a couple of decades now and the Union finance minister may have needed some guts to keep off such politically motivated decisions. She dismissed queries with the logic that there would be criticism either way on this.

Populism has been given the go by, which is to be welcomed because, as a nation, India is far more poll obsessed than many and given the vastness of the country, every year is a poll year. When the finance minister introduced schemes targeting high value crops like coconut and cashew, the measure could be said to be aimed generally at peninsular India, which has far more of them than the rest of India. And if fishing gets some attention with drop in duty, etc. the whole of coastal India would benefit.

The seven high speed rail corridors announced are to do with developing crucial growth connections and serving economic activity along key urban and industrial centres. Chennai, which will connect faster to Hyderabad and Bengaluru, and Siliguri and Dankuni in Bengal to Varanasi and Surat, respectively, will be among the cities to benefit. But this is a national push for enhancing economic activity rather than a sop for any specific state going to the polls. So too the promised rare earths corridor which is part of the effort to keep pace with demand for batteries as part of futuristic sectors in which investments are being made.