A.K. Bhattacharya’s ‘India’s Finance Ministers: From Independence to Emergency’ is a serious book, not meant for the masses.
For many years, officials of the Finance Ministry in North Block would wait to read analysis of the Union Budget by A.K. Bhattacharya, as would editors of rival dailies and reporters on the finance beat. It continued for long, really long years. Bhattacharya—AKB or Bhatta to his friends—could dissect the Union Budget in a few hours, ostensibly because he followed the ministry, the minister, and all the works very meticulously.
One of his books, India’s Finance Ministers: From Independence to Emergency (1947-1977), has hit the stands and many have started picking it from the shelves to understand how finance ministers in India’s first three decades since Independence worked their way through in the corridors of power. This is a serious book, not meant for the masses.
The author explains in detail many issues that Indians would not know. He talks about the time when India arrives at its current taxation policy? He refers to the time when New Delhi (read the government) incentivized multinationals operating in India to share their profits with Indians and whether the socialist outlook of Nehru was the best answer for India.
Bhattacharya has delved deep in the work culture of ministers like R.K. Shanmukham Chetty, John Matthai, C.D. Deshmukh, T.T. Krishnamachari and Morarji Desai and analysed how the ministers balanced their economic considerations with political considerations of their times. How knew, like the palm of his hand, some of the basic differences between an economist or a professional assuming the chair of the FM, or a diehard politician doing the same. And in the same breadth, Bhattacharya would know why political considerations would often overtake economic arguments.
Bhattacharya, expectedly, makes it clear that the man who impressed him most as the FM was the genial Manmohan Singh, who eventually became the Prime Minister for two terms. Now Singh was the FM for the shortest time but took some crucial decisions to kick start the Indian economy engine. Singh was singularly responsible—P.V. Narasimha Rao also played his part—for bailing out the balance of payment problem and the fiscal discipline issue.
It is evident from the book that Bhattacharya was one Singh’s most favourite journalist. Did Singh win the game all the time, no he didn’t. He rolled back partial prices of fertilisers after hiking them in his 1991 Union Budget.
Bhattacharya was the ideal newshound in the North Block and often picked up scoops that turned into six column banner headlines for the newspapers he served.
He remembers Singh was an idealistic politician who tendered his resignation not once, but twice during his five-year tenure.
Bhattacharya explains in detail why no prime minister will subject his political goals to be subservient to economic issues. The author—it is clear—understood the functioning of the finance ministry. What swung in Bhattacharya’s advantage was the fact that he was lucky not to have worked during the nonsense of breaking news. His reports were brilliant, and read with sanity across India.
So it is natural that Bhattacharya could dig more gold than the rest, he knew how ministers balanced their lives between political demands and economic necessities. And how they balanced the two, a very tightrope walk. Many feel their ideology has gone for a toss, many feel they just cannot understand what their PM wants from them and many just do not realise what exactly is the political and economic framework—or the proverbial Lakshman Rekha—that is favoured by the PM.
And as Bhattacharya mentions in the book, some of the finance ministers even lost their jobs because they just could not understand the message from the PM or, the all-powerful, Prime Minister’s Office (PMO).
Bhattacharya writes about the brilliant John Matthai who did not like PM Jawaharlal Nehru’s idea of having the Planning Commission because it could sidetrack the Finance Ministry. Mathai did what the PM wanted and then silently resigned, much to Nehru’s dismay. The person who succeeded Matthai, C.D. Deshmukh, became the longest serving FM under Nehru. Deshmukh was the first-ever former RBI governor to be appointed the finance minister. But he had to resign after he voiced his differences over reorganisation of the state of Maharashtra. Bhattacharya reminds readers how India’s first FM, R.K. Shanmukham Chetty was chosen as the first-ever finance minister by Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru, despite Chetty not being a Congressman.
And then, Chetty was asked to resign by Nehru following allegations that he had favoured some mill-owners. Consider the case of T.T. Krishnamachari, who was indicted by the Chagla Commission. What is interesting is that there was no direct involvement in making money, but Krishnamachari was blamed for defying the rule book.
And then there was Morarji Desai, a political toughnut who had many run-ins with PM Indira Gandhi on the issue of bank nationalisation. Gandhi wanted people in the hinterland to get access to the banks, and their cash. Desai wanted social control of the banks. Gandhi took the portfolio away from Desai and kept it herself. The bottomline: The FM works under the PM.
The author delves deep into understanding the functioning of the FM and the PM and says too many chances does not work well for the PM. Rajiv Gandhi had four FMs in five years, Narasimha Rao had just one FM, Manmohan Singh and Narendra Modi had two finance ministers in ten years (including the interim FM Piyush Goyal).
Bhattacharya makes it clear in the book why the role of the FM is largely misunderstood in the media. Is he saying not many reporters understand the intricacies of the FM and his position in the cabinet? Probably yes.
The author notes how often the FM finds himself/herself in isolation within the cabinet, how often the FM is seen contradicting the prime minister and how often the FM feels the portfolio is a very thankless one. It could be a tough read for some, easy read for some, especially those keen to understand how the finance ministers worked their way through in the Cabinet.