It was supposed to be a grand finale. The build-up began days in advance. On his last day, the finance minister was going to reverse three years of inaction and announce a slew of policy changes that would put reforms back on the front burner.
Finance minister Pranab Mukherjee
We all disregarded the conflict of interest in a person demitting office making forward-looking statements. Promises that he couldn’t take to completion. In hindsight, the markets should have known better.
Nothing in this government’s actions in the last three years shows that it understood what markets wanted and what the economy required.
The soggy announcements, fired from the shoulder of a tired Reserve Bank of India, slapped markets across the face and the country was left asking: Did we just say goodbye to the worst finance minister India’s had?
