Thread by @AltsarkarF

To: @Alt_PM of #AltSarkar
From: AltSarkar_FM
Thank you for asking me to take on this role. I shall do my best. At a time when the Govt has had to raid @RBI reserves, it is clear that we are in deep shit. A fresh start will mean agreeing some home-truth principles

The world does not owe us a living, We have to work for it and work hard. We have to live within our means, while at the same time improving our prospects through investments in education, health, welfare so that each year we grow richer, stronger, healthier.

We grow richer only by being more productive. That means, in simple terms we produce for each worker more this year than we did last year. Productivity growth is everything.

While it is our people, businesses and enterprises that do the heavy lifting the role of Government is to enable them, make it easier for them to do so. AltSarkar must provide the leadership on the culture, the ethos and communal peace and harmony on which businesses can build.

Everyone loves to hate taxes, but they are a necessary evil. #AltSarkar has a monoply power to raise revenues through taxes. With that power comes responsibility to spend wisely, eschew profligacy, promote welfare and maximise public benefit.

Now to the expenditure side. Governments always love to spend - especially on big ticket items; it is not their money after all and the glory is reflected on Ministers. But we must be principled and agree criteria in advance how to prioritise budgetary allocations.

Principle 1 and 2 are simple enough but have deep implications. It implies careful policy analysis, wide consultation, assessment of risks, benefits and of unintended consequences. The biggest culprit is #VanityProjects and #Statues.

Once we get the allocative efficiency right, the task then is to spend wisely, measure and monitor progress, and report successes and failures with equal and brutal honesty.

Principle 4 is all about agreeing setting and pursuing the objective. It needs a new way of thinking and jettisoning old ways of reacting. The over-riding objective must be to help the poorest and weakest sections of society.

And finally, for my fifth principle I offer #AltSarkar a prescription of a healthy dose of pragmatism and a prohibition of the dogma.

Madan Alt_PM and other members of Cabinet of #AltSarkar, I offer you these principles as a starting point for future discussions and plans of specific proposals