The Babu as FM - Confessions of a Swadeshi Reformer – Yashwant Sinha ruminates
For some time, he was known as the FM who pledged the family gold in the London market to salvage a sinking Indian Economy, but the bureaucrat turned politician never depended on a personal secretary – at least that is what he says in his memoirs.
Who wants to be the next Finance Minister? Sinha thinks that the Sixth Pay Commission could be a nuclear bomb on the finances of the country and the Finance Minister’s job is an eminently avoidable one – Sinha certainly has no chances of avoiding it or being burdened with it.
Sinha’s reminiscences are eminently avoidable and hardly reveal anything except showing him as the valiant knight in shining armour. It seems there was a proposal to trifurcate the Finance Ministry and Sinha strongly objected to it, though he does not reveal as to who planned the division. Sinha had asked Prime Minister Vajpayee to relieve him from the Finance Portfolio and the PM took his time and ultimately relieved him with the words that he was doing quite a good job in the finance ministry, but the public perception had to be taken note of, he (PM) had decided to shift him (Sinha) from the Ministry of Finance. Sinha says, I was happy because I had got what I wanted. My only regret was that I was shifted because the ‘perception’ about my tenure in the finance ministry was not favourable about me.
Sinha was BJP’s FM, but he was not a part of the saffron brigade and perhaps did not enjoy much clout in the party. Is it with a tinge of sadness that he says, “Perhaps a lot of people were glad that I had finally left charge as finance minister. I do not know if I could have played the game differently. Could have propitiated the powers that be in a different way. I am not merely referring to the powers that be in the party and in the government but to those out there in Mumbai and other places. “