SUNDAYET IN A ONE-ON-ONE WITH FM BUDGET IS POLITICAL Partha Ghosh & Shantanu Nandan Sharma NEW DELHI CANDID and forthright even a gruelling 24 hours after the Finance Minister's big day, Pranab Mukherjee belies his years as he combatively asserts what many politicians who were in the same hotseat earlier pointedly have not: that the Budget is very much a political document. He tells SundayET in no uncertain terms on The Day After, "We are not economists, technocrats or civil servants....I get a back-up from civil servants and economists, but I am a political activist. And my Budget is essentially a document that follows our political ideology."      In a country still deeply dependent on the government, that bit of wisdom should be Politics 101. And trust a double MA in politics and history to enunciate it.     The numbers Mr Mukherjee had read out on February 26 were huge and significant—a planned expenditure outlay for 2010-11 of Rs 3.73 lakh crore, of which 1.37 lakh crore is earmarked for infrastructure development, Rs 48,000 crore for Bharat Nirman, Rs 40,100 crore for NREGA, Rs 36,000 crore for Sarva Shikha Abhiyaan, Rs 1,200 crore package for Bundelkhand, even Rs 500 crore for the Ganga.     What SundayET learnt about the slightly-built Mr Mukherjee's own statistics on February 27 are equally mindboggling. He begins his day at 7 am — and makes it a point to read ET—puts in a straight 18 hours of work on an average, heads 17 GoM forums (down from 42 in UPA-I), sleeps for less than 6 hours, and never takes holidays—and all this at age 74. Nothing is allowed to come in the way of his job and his broader mission.     Explaining that the Budget cannot be separated from the political vision of a party, Mukherjee clarifies that the document is not an agenda of an individual, but a reflection of the party's political manifesto; the Budget and the Five Year Plans cannot veer away from that, he emphasises. Suddenly, the infrastructure, NREGA, education and other outlays, even Bundelkhand and the Ganga goodies, make (political) sense, even as his proposals for fiscal consolidation and partial roll-back of the stimulus package meet with the economists' approval.     "I won't say it's a spectacular Budget. Let others work out and comment on it, but whatever I committed during the last year, you link it with that. I tried my best to fulfil those commitments," he says with a little smile, sitting in his first floor office in North Block earlier occupied by Liaqat Ali Khan, CD Deshmukh, VP Singh, and of course, Dr Manmohan Singh. His own earlier innings as FM has obviously preyed on his mind when only 26% of funds meant for the 6th Plan (1980-85) was utilised by 1982; the second time round, nearly 30 years later, he's made it a point to achieve a near 100% target for the current Five Year Plan.      Given his 24X7 devotion to the government's politico-economic gameplan, it is a commentary on Mr Mukherjee's confidence that he did not let the opposition parties' walkout during his Budget speech, nor the subsequent tiring round of backto-back interviews, get to him. He stuck to his routine and turned in at his usual time — 1.30am, and was totally relaxed as SundayET met him the next day. The secret behind Mr Mukherjee's fresh-as-a-daisy visage? His knack of taking power naps through the day, he reveals.     And for those who were surprised by the 37% gross budgetary support for the social sector and were intrigued by the smile on Mr Mukherjee's face as he announced his initiatives for rural India, here's the inside story. "As a village boy, I was very hard-working. I had to travel 6 km every day to reach my school," he reminisces. "There was no road to go to school. It was constructed only after I became a minister!" No wonder Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan is a pet project and he robustly asserts, "We must have more schools, give money to construct schools and madrassas."       With the Budget preparation brouhaha behind him, the logical thing would be for Mr Mukherjee to head out for a break and relax. Maybe spend the last bit of balmy weather listening to his favourite Rabindra Sangeet. "I like work," he says simply. "Without work I find it quite uncomfortable. Work itself is relaxation for me!" As for Rabindra Sangeet, he admits, "Yes, I have a huge collection; but I hardly get time to listen."     The voice of the people is clearly more compelling....