Yashwant Sinha is perhaps the first and original reformer Finance
Minister of India.
Some of the reforms attributable to him include the shift of the Budget Session
in the Parliament from 5 pm to a11 am, cleaning up indirect taxes – excise and
transition to VAT, reduction of real interest rate, Kisan (farmer) credit
cards, Action Taken Reports (ATR) on budget pronouncements and the National
Highway Development Programme (NHDP). As such it is interesting to see what he
has to say about his stint in the Ministry of Finance. The book is in three
parts and thirty short chapters and is actually spoken to Vimala Veluchamy. The
first and the last sections are fairly juicy.
Sadly the country and also the world were unkind to him. May be
because of the perception that he never had the Prime Minister’s confidence and
that he was a Hobson’s choice thrust by the RSS, the Rashtriya Swayamsevak
Sangh. All through he was also given the Swadeshi tag, which he has proudly
included in the title of this autobiography. He was also an unlucky Finance
Minister. Pokhran nuclear test, Kargil
conflict, terrorist attack on the Parliament, earthquake in Gujarat
and the Godhra tragedy were all during his tenure. Furthermore, there were
scams and scandals like UTI MarkI and II, treaty with Mauritius,
Ketan Parikh, Tehelka sting operation, Mohan Guruswamy and Flex industries, not
to forget Chairman CBCE’s arrest by CBI. He also earned a f roll back tag
because of not only the urea prices and tax proposals, but also insurance
sector and labour market reforms. Yashwant Sinha confesses that had there been
more competent and experienced civil officers many problems could have been
avoided. There is no titillating material in the book but this is made up by
several interesting anecdotes and spicy tit bits.