Budget as a Ritual

Commenting on the union budget has become as ritualistic as the very nature of the budget. Agreement and disagreement, which are the two sides of the same coin called budget, have also become a matter of ritual. Although the budget of 2021–22 is part of the rule rather than an exception, it seems to have gone overboard in promoting partisan priorities. As the editorial on budget in this issue suggests, the 2021–22 budget seems to be skewed, clearly indicating partisan priorities in favour of the corporates. It is these priorities and not altruistic interests that can explain the celebration of the budget by prominent sections of the corporates in India.

It is the perennial nature of the partisan elements that is integral to the yearly budget that reduces such an exercise to a mere ritual and converts it into a document of enduring disagreement. Various social groups, particularly from the margins, demonstrate their disagreement or disappointment at the budget. The counter- public that is built up around the budget would do nothing much for women, Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes. In fact, their voices are not necessarily illegitimate, but they also pitch up their disagreement within the same game of figures that is considered as the solution to the perennial problems.