Few dates on the Indian calendar are as monitored, as anticipated as Budget Day. The last day of February is not only the occasion for the government to throw open its account books to public audit, it is also the moment for it to speak its mind on economic policy, to draw the road map for how government, industry and even ordinary citizens will earn, spend and save their money.

Our Budget 1997 cover

Since economics is seldom if ever divorced from politics, a budget comes-or should come-with a larger message. It tells you which constituencies the government wants to address, which concerns it sees as priority. Finance Minister Jaswant Singh's first budget is a model in political clarity. In an election year-there are five big state elections in November and the buzz about an early parliamentary poll refuses to die down-the BJP has gone the whole hog in wooing its core constituency: the burgeoning middle class.

Already descriptions like "giveaway budget" and "bonanza" are being thrown about. A commentator on news channel Aaj Tak even likened the budget to a Christmas tree: it had something for everyone. The strength, political and economic, of India's middle class has been recognised by Jaswant. He has reduced excise duties on a gamut of goods of middle-class consumption-from cars and air conditioners to cold drinks and biscuits. The income-tax burden is down. The detested double taxation of dividends stands abolished.

The picture is not all rosy. The Government's finances continue to be in a major mess. Fiscal deficit has overshot its target by Rs 10,000 crore. In the past year alone, the subsidy bill went up by 38 per cent. Tax collection is below expectations. Jaswant has done little to directly redress this state of affairs. He has, however, taken steps to shore up the states, the finances of which are in an even bigger mess.

Broadly speaking, Jaswant has taken an audacious gamble. He has created an environment that he hopes will propel middle-class consumption and lead to an economic growth that will, indirectly, fill the Government's coffers. In short, his budget is based on the presumption that good politics can also make good economics.

I hope he pulls it off.