Milking the budget

While the Congress had its focus on the farmers’ loan waiver and income-tax relief for the middle class in the Budget, the leader of the crucial UPA ally RJD, Lalu Prasad Yadav, was more concerned about the tax on dairying, which is the traditional occupation of the Yadav community in north India. In the Cabinet meeting just prior to the Budget presentation in Parliament, Lalu is learnt to have asked the Finance Minister to do away with the tax on milk. When P Chidambaram informed him that there was no such tax being levied, Lalu demanded that the income earned from dairying should not be subject to income tax. Were Lalu’s worries to do with his fellow Yadavs or the dairy of sorts he has set up at his official residence in Patna?