It's rare that the budget team of outgoing government also makes budget (read vote on account) for the new government. But in Rajasthan all characters in the ‘Great Budget Show' was same except the finance minister and secretary in finance department Rohit Gupta who had gone on a long leave.
Deputy chief minister Diya Kumari replaced former chief minister Ashok Gehlot as finance minister.
The finance team led by additional chief secretary Akhil Arora drafted the Gehlot budget as well as the budget presented by Diya Kumari. In the budget speech Diya Kumari rip apart the budget that was presented by Gehlot government and rued about the financial mess Gehlot had left behind.
Interestingly, both the speeches of Gehlot and Diya Kumari were prepared by the same team. When Gehlot presented budget last year, the same team hailed it as the unprecedented dream budget. And at the time when Diya Kumari presented the same team condemned the ‘dream budget of Gehlot'.
The change of power changes the equation, what if faces don't change.
The irony is the team which hailed Mukhya Mantri Chiranjeevi Swasthya Bima Yojana as the county's pioneer and the best health insurance scheme, has to change the nomenclature of the scheme to Mukhya Mantri Ayushman Arogya Yojana.
The budget speech of Diya Kumari highlighted the financial mess of the state of which the current finance ministry team who drafted the speech, is also a part.
The management of finance is a difficult job. Whosoever is the finance secretary finds himself in a precarious situation when the ruling party goes to poll. Arora also had to face similar condition when he had to meet the extravagant poll promises Gehlot had made in the election year.
The financial mess is just a result of that. According to finance minister Diya Kumari, the new government inherited a debt of ₹5.79 lakh crore from Gehlot government's financial goof up.
She also pointed out that out of the total debt of ₹2.24 lakh crore, only ₹93,577 crore had been capital investment while remaining amount was just expenditure.
Ram Kumar Kaushik is a seasoned journalist with over 25 years of experience across mediums. The architect of this news website, he is also a consultant with several media groups. He was formerly the group managing editor of ITV Network (NewsX, India News and The Sunday Guardian) and its digital products.
