But those who heard Sinha the day after the PM's brave new India speech must have wondered if the government was coherent. For Sinha said the government has no money and that the fiscal deficit should be brought down to 3 per cent of GDP. True, the FM gave no time frame for reducing expenditure and (or) increasing government revenue in support of the new fiscal deficit target. The statement was open-ended, but it did give rise to doubts about the promised increase in the budget outlay on capital expenditure. Sinha did not even refer to the September (post-monsoon) start-up of government expenditure on construction. Instead, he focussed on the fiscal deficit reduction target. The implication of all this could be that the fisc is in trouble, and the quick fix of increased public expenditure in the short run is far from secure. The FM may not have intended this, but the signal he conveyed was that the recession will remain unmitigated. If what the PM said is viewed as an attempt to talk up theeconomy, the FM did precisely the opposite.

Possibly, what Vajpayee had in mind was that private foreign investment would contribute to the super highway project. This is also indicated by Sinha's subsequent assertions on his preference for widening the automatic route for investment which currently attracts hardly 10 per cent of investment proposals. There is need for mega policy liberalisation to obviate the need for specific clearances from FIPB or the concerned administrative ministry. This is a bullet that a swadeshi government is unlikely to bite. Hence its propensity to blow hot air.