You could easily guess what made me pick this particular topic to write on. Obviously, the vigor that provoked me to write this blog are the two recent budget presentations delivered in the Indian Parliament by two eminent figures of Indian politics. Let me be more precise about what I am hinting at. I am referring to the railway and finance budget speech delivered to the house by Ms. Mamta Banerjee and Mr. Pranab Mukharjee respectively.
Watching budget presentations is not a habit that I picked up long ago. The first budget presentation that I actually paid – if not close - real attention was the finance budget presented to the house in 2004 by the then finance minister Mr. P Chidambaram. Until then, budget presentations did not induce in me any kind of enthusiasm whatsoever. I was least bothered about what was being presented in a railway budget as I was not a frequent traveler in Indian Railways back then. I wasn’t very enthusiastic about finance budget presentations either. I think it was for the reason that I was just a student back then, and I was neither an employee nor an investor in the stock market to have any kind of interest in finance budget. But things changed since then and these days I am into both, and that makes me anxiously wait for the finance budget presentations every year.
Though budget presentations are an inveterate yearly routine in our country, considering the horrid condition our economy is in at this moment, I was expecting something out of ordinary from this year’s budget. The country was expecting a 1991-like budget that would help India ooze through this rough economic weather. But, sadly, both the budgets turned out to be anything but extraordinary. Experts say that it was a ‘mix bag of hits and misses’. However, after watching both the budget presentations, more than the content of the presentations, there was something else that stood out: the lack of quality in communication and style of presentation of both the presenters.
This year’s railway budget presentation, to me, looked more like an arid comedy show being telecasted from the Indian Parliament. While watching Mamta Banerjee’s railway budget presentation, for a moment I felt like I am living a couple of civilizations behind time. Let me put it bluntly. There was absolutely no class in the way she delivered her budget speech, and her English was awful.
The finance budget speech delivery by Mr. Pranab Mukharjee neither deserves any accolades. If style of presentation and lack of control over English was the problem with Mamta, Pranab failed in bring clarity to his communication. The country in general and the stock market in particular was more interested in hearing from the finance minister on critical issues like disinvestment, fiscal deficit, measures to recover from recession, etc., which are the primary cause of concern for the nation at this point in time. His speech, in fact, covered most of these issues, but, because of the lack of clarity in communication, it came out like these are issues of least concern for the government at this time.
The impact of this lack of clarity in communication was well predictable: stock market took a nose dive and closed 800 plus points down. Though the finance secretary and the deputy chairman of planning commission later appeared on television and made an attempt to elucidate to the world what they actually intend to do on the real issues that country faces today, it was too late and the damage was already made.
As I pointed out at the beginning of this blog, I don’t have many references to make when it comes to budget presentations. I only remember watching P. Chidambaram delivering his budget speeches, and I was truly impressed by his style of presentation. The content of the budget presented by him might be good or bad, but, his speech delivery was without doubt a class apart.
May be Chidambaram is an exception in this country. You could very well argue that majority of the politicians in our country come from the masses, and you can’t expect all of them to be Harvard educated like Chidambaram or Kapil Sibal. You could also ask why presentation delivery is significant, and all that should matter is the content of the budget that would be later put into action. I absolutely agree on these points. However, I feel, it is always desirable to have someone at the top who possess a decent communication skill, especially in English. I feel so, because we are not anymore the India of 1950s, where rest of the world didn’t even bother about how we lived or what we do for a living. We have come a long way, and we are on the verge of becoming a super power. The world around is watching us closely, and they are expecting us to lead the world into the future along with our eastern neighbor, China. So, our politicians are not just representing the masses in the parliament, they are also the brand ambassadors of a brand called India. The people representing a brand do play a major role in framing the perceptions that is built around a brand.
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