City folks cheer aam admi touch to Budget

NEW DELHI: Trust Pranab Mukherjee���s political gut. Even while economists, the stock market, ratings agencies, and talking heads in the media were rubbishing his first Budget for UPA-II as long on fiscal profligacy and short on deliverables, its focus on Bharat���s ���aam aadmi��� found favour with the man on the street in urban India.

The finance minister seems to have sold to them his logic that inclusion of the underprivileged and have-nots is enlightened self-interest and could be the panacea for sustained prosperity.

This is clear from the ET-Hansa Research Post Budget Mood of the Nation Poll. Half of all people surveyed across the four metros, plus Bangalore and Ahmedabad, are happy with the Budget, with the count of sulkers under a fourth.

Though the inevitable comparison with P Chidambaram���s Budget 2008, which delighted many more consumers (around two-third), may appear stark, it is important to remember that February 2008 was another day and age, a time when Lehman was still a honourable name and the global financial crisis had not washed up on India���s shores.