This is the 13th time in 13 years that I am presenting my Alternative Budget. There have been few, rare occasions when finance ministers have unveiled proposals that have made me hopeful about the future of India. On most occasions, the budgets have been spectacular and persistent failures. When he became prime minister in 2004, Dr Manmohan Singh came with unparalleled experience in administration and economics.

So what went wrong? Not only has Dr Singh repeatedly failed to say no to some really crazy and harebrained schemes cooked by Jholawala members of the National Advisory Council, he has also been so mysteriously silent over the last nine years that none of us knows exactly how much he cares. Now, people have even begun to question his integrity and timidity.