The Sappers, as the engineering corps in the armies of the world are affectionately called, proudly boast that they are ‘the first to enter the battlefield and the last to leave.’ That last-to-leave bit refers to, in case of retreat, their laying of mines in the area they are letting go of. That is to render the area automatically hostile to the army taking their place.
Some referred to the previous government’s provision of an outrageously large fuel subsidy as a minefield for the party that comes to power after it. Unfair adjective? Well, that’s what the previous interior minister himself called this strategy on live television. No accusation but a proud claim!
Everything else by way of extravagant expenditure by the former government seems small fry in comparison to the fuel subsidy, at least in terms of cost incurred. It is assumed that the lavish expenditure on, say, the Rs 1 billion on the two VVIP aircraft that the former prime minister signed off on, or his penchant for travelling a couple of kilometres every day by helicopter, wasn’t for the purpose of inflating the tab that the succeeding government would have to pay for, but was only the result of a fondness for luxury, despite his claims to the contrary.
The world over, populists like the former premier say that they are against ‘politics as usual’ on account of their being outsiders. On horseback. But they soon start acting like usual politicians during their ascent. And then, when in power, they really outdo their opponents in this regard.
The spending patterns of the previous administration – who had projected themselves as quite Spartan, with attempts at ostentatious austerity that bordered on the foolish rather than achieving fiscal space – turned out to be far more lavish in certain cases than any of the supposedly plush lifestyles of its predecessors.
