January 4, 1999
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Heroes, Villains and Zeroes '98 YASHWANT SINHA The PMO put him on a short leash after he lost grip over inflation.  After
Manmohan Singh and P. Chidambaram, the office of the finance minister acquired an aura
that would have made any new incumbent look larger than life. Yashwant Sinha basked
briefly in the hangover of glory, until he was overwhelmed by falling revenues, sagging
markets and rebellious inflation. Rattled by the events, he'd cut subsidies today and
order a roll-back tomorrow. If asked when the markets would improve, he'd hum the buzz of
the '60s, his decade, "Come September". In October and thereafter, with the
stock-market indices still sticky at low levels, he'd have "rolled back" his
words if he could. Of all the targets that Sinha had ambitiously set, it is inflation that
went particularly haywire, exemplified by the runaway rise in the price of onions which
cost the BJP heavily in the November assembly polls. Sinha is currently being sidelined by
the PMO but there may not be many to sing a dirge to his journey into political oblivion.
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