Issue is moral, not legal

The Supreme Court has ruled that legally there is no bar on the Union government from presenting the annual Budget in Parliament on February 1. The PIL filed by a lawyer was dismissed paving the way for the government to go ahead with the Budget session that is set to begin on January 31 with the presentation of the Economic Survey and then the Union Budget the next day. The Election Commission, which has been approached by 16 parties in this issue, is yet to rule and a final decision from the EC could determine when the Budget can be presented.

The issue was always a moral one as five states are due to go to the polls from February 4, just three days after the Budget. In all fairness, it must be said the government may not have known what the election dates would be when they fixed the date for the Budget. However, the rulers must have been aware that a tricky issue would crop up this year. There was a parallel to this in 2012 when BJP and other Opposition parties objected to the Budget date then and the UPA put off presenting it to March 16 that year from the traditional date of February 28 as the same five states were going to the polls then.

From the manner in which the issue has been handled it is apparent that the BJP was not inclined to pay heed to such niceties as closeness of the Budget to state elections. The argument that there will be no special announcements on the five states going to the polls is specious because so much in the general Budget can act towards influencing the vote like corporate and personal taxation. There may be no legal bar to the Budget on February 1, which date may make sense from the bureaucracy’s point of view, but it is apparent that the ruling dispensation is not unduly worried about the moral aspects of the Budget date.