Seeing eye to eye with your finance minister

A good equation between the prime minister and finance minister is needed to ensure effective economic policies

- A.K. Bhattacharya

Yashwant Sinha's tenure as finance minister is remarkable, particularly because of the nature of the equation he had with his prime minister. Remember that Sinha first became the finance minister under the Chandra Shekhar government in November 1990. At that time, Sinha was a member of the Samajwadi Janata Party or Janata Dal (Socialist). He switched over to the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in 1992. The choice of Sinha as the finance minister, just six years after joining the party, came as a surprise to many political observers within the BJP and outside. The first Vajpayee government, which lasted just sixteen days in 1996, had appointed Jaswant Singh as the finance minister. Sinha was a member of the BJP then but was not even among the eleven ministers who were part of Vajpayee's council of ministers.

Indeed, Sinha's elevation as the finance minister just two years later was a surprise even for him as well. After being sworn in as a minister and before the allocation of ministries, Sinha had approached Vajpayee to seek permission to visit Hazaribagh, the constituency that had elected him to the Twelfth Lok Sabha. An apparently amused Vajpayee had asked Sinha if he were to leave for Hazaribagh, who would prepare and present the Budget? That was Vajpayee's way of informing Sinha that he would be the next finance minister. And that was also how Sinha learnt that Vajpayee would like him to steer the finance ministry. The style and manner in which the prime minister chose to tell Sinha about his decision also showed how the relationship between the two had remained a little uncertain and tentative.