Budget’s ‘visionary’, ‘game-changer’… – The Economic Times

Ah, Budget Day. When India Inc puts its game face on singing hosannas to government policy, lauding GoI’s fiscal wizardry with the enthusiasm of a Spanish football commentator describing a goal. Regardless of its contents, the budget will be a ‘masterstroke’, ‘game-changer’, ‘visionary’, and ‘perfect balance’ between growth and inclusion. Well, for public – and government – consumption, anyway.CEOs will give sound bites that have more bark than last year’s sound bites, the online thesaurus being dragged out to find fresh synonyms to applaud the budget in new ways. It’s not easy – making the schmoozefest fresh. ‘This budget is a landmark in India’s economic history,’ will have to be uttered with a smile as wide as the fiscal deficit. ‘A bold and transformative step’ will be uttered as if the secret to eternal youth has just been discovered.

The budget could well have proposed a tax on oxygen, and you’d still hear the same chorus of approval. ‘A necessary measure to curb pollution,’ the pundits of profit would say, while discreetly checking their air purifiers. Everyone knows their part and plays it to perfection. Barring maybe that bearded academic prof who’ll channel the contrarian spirit of the late Rahul Bajaj to extend his position at Yale. But for the titans of industry, it’s sticking to the ‘We commend you, you recommend us’ script.