Research Team
Siba Sankar Mohanty, Director-NSA
Ratneswar Sahu, Programme Associate-NSA
Sashiprabha Bindhani, CCG Member, Wada Na Todo Abhiyan
Blorin Kumar Mohanty, General Secretary, BGVS-Orissa
Sarat Das, Secretary, Orissa, Students Federation of India
Gouranga Mohapatra, Coordinator, Jan Swasthya Abhiyan-Orissa
As Discussed and Approved in the CSO Consultation Meeting at
C-2, HIG HB Colony, Baramunda, Bhubaneswar, Orissa, India -751003 on
10th July 2009
For fulltext in pdf format click here 
[This document is a collective effort of the individuals mentioned in the list of researchers above and has no bearing with their organizational affiliation. Network for Social Accountability (NSA) takes all responsibility of any errors and omissions in compiling the efforts of the research team in the form of this document.]
What follows is a response on the Union Budget 2009-10 presented in the Parliament on 6thJuly 2009. An effort has been made to look at the budget from the perspective of the poor and marginalized sections of our society. The present budget is not an ordinary budget. It has to be seen in the background of two major developments in recent times. Most prominently, this Union Budget 2009-10 is to be viewed as the first policy outline of the ruling coalition to tackle the ongoing world economic crisis (termed in several quarters as the greatest global economic recession in the history of mankind) to which, contrary to the tall claims of the ruling party, India is hardly immune. This Union Budget 2009-10 is also to be considered as the first policy formulation of the ruling coalition after getting the decisive political mandate of the people in the General Elections 2009 for its performance in keeping the economic meltdown away from critical sectors like banking and for providing substantial relief to the masses in distress through its programmes like NREGS; Again, for substantial reasons, these are achievements for which not the present ruling coalition but its previous partners (prominently the Left Parties) are to be credited. The Budget 2009-10 also holds a lot of significance for its relevance in assessing the intentions of the present government in keeping its own promises it has made during the general elections held recently. Unfortunately, the mainstream section of the academia media and civil society have hailed the Union Budget very uncritically by highlighting on mere numbers and an apparent increase in the aggregate allocation. Network for Social Accountability (NSA) in its efforts to create an informed debate on development issues and particularly on governance, views budgets as a tool to assess the level of pro-people orientation in the policy making efforts of a system. Towards this goal, the use of this document in response to Union Budget as an advocacy tool is highly appreciated and we are thankful for any use of this document to hold the government accountable to the people who are governed by the system. Any emphasis on specific items for discussion, any sarcasm and any exaggeration of the facts and statements made in the document has no intention of insulting or hurting anyone but to highlight certain issues that would otherwise go unnoticed.
Describing the position of the ruling party in relation to its alignment towards conflicting interest groups, the Manifesto of the party for the General Elections -2009 mentioned about their preference for opting a middle path. “Balance—or the middle path--has always been the hall-mark of the policies of the Indian National Congress”. When more than 90 percent of our rural population live below Rs. 38 per day, and spend less than Rs. 12 a day on food items, compared to a fortune of around Rs. 7.5 lakh crore (around 12 percent of the annual GDP of the country) held by only four richest Indians, what constitutes a middle path is a serious issue for debate. The Manifesto of the Congress Party gives credit to this choosing of the middle path for keeping India away from the global meltdown in the wake of economic crisis. It takes pride in choosing a middle path between the public sector and the private sector by bringing in the concept of private-public partnership and acting as a facilitator of large scale grab of land and other economic resources for setting up SEZs and other forms of loot of common property of the masses. In a situation of polarization of interests of the haves and the have-nots, exploiters and the exploited, industrialists and the displaced masses, what does choosing middle path means? Have the achievements claimed to be the hallmark of success of the present party in power during last general elections been a result of this middle path? Is the government planning to fulfill its promises made in its manifesto through its middle path theory only? Let us try to find out answers for these questions by looking at the numbers it has presented in its first budget after the elections 2009.
