This means the SAD-BJP government had disrespected the sanctity associated with budget figures. It did not disclose, or account for, the Rs 25,000 crore expenditure carried out subsequently, according to Finance Minister Manpreet Badal.
Doubts about Akalis doctoring figures may be partly cleared after a third-party audit of the state finances, publication of a White Paper and a Vigilance probe into the Rs 31,000-crore “food scam”. Vigilance, as Capt Amarinder Singh ought to know from experience, is unreliable.
It is useful more for high-profile bailouts than convictions. More skeletons are expected to tumble out of the Badal closet. The CAG has put up a damning report saying PSPCL under-used its own plants and charged Rs 1,428 crore extra from consumers.
The new leadership, however, need not dwell too much on Akali misrule as voters have already punished them. While witch-hunting is certainly undesirable, punishment for violations of the law, if any, can be ensured by letting the law take its course, regardless of the law-breakers’ position or cosy relationship with some in the ruling party.
Other than abundant talk and oodles of confidence, the new rulers have displayed little else. The sense of purpose and urgency seen at the first Cabinet meeting was missing in the first assembly session. It needs to go beyond red beacons and focus on the road ahead — how to effect financial transformation of Punjab and arrange funds for keeping the party’s populist promises, including a farm loan waiver.
How the GST rollout will affect the state finances needs to be urgently studied, as also the fallout of the likely pay hike. Restoration of the state’s financial health will require hard decisions. Going by the new dispensation's please-all approach and adjustment of every available Captain loyalist in key posts, populism may triumph over fiscal rectitude.
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