| I have watched with fascination your transformation from an upmarket boxwallah to a downmarket neta. I need hardly tell you that I thought you were good as spokesman of industry; I would like you to do even better as a leader of the people. I do not underestimate your task: you have chosen to lead a people who are born leaders but do not know the ABC of following anyone. And you have chosen to manage the finances of a state which has been systematically mismanaged for a quarter century. I do not know what made you do something so foolhardy or idealistic, whichever the case. But one gets such a chance once in a lifetime; if one does, it is better to throw caution to the winds than to rue one's caution all one's life. Having thrown the dice, however, you had better make sure you win; at least I wish you would. Part of your job is technical, namely finding money and using as much of it as possible for the good of your state without jeopardising its future. This job is difficult enough. But it is the one for which you are qualified. So I will not go beyond conveying my impression that West Bengal's ratio of revenue to its domestic product is low by Indian standards whilst its principal tax rates are not, which implies that the proportion of taxes due being actually collected is low and can be raised considerably. Having said that, I would also suggest that you hurried slowly; the ravages of a quarter century cannot be undone instantaneously, and you can assume you have four more years. The other part of the job is what one would call public relations or people management. Although a government is supposed to govern and to have the monopoly of force for that purpose, governments in India have little power and seldom use it to any purpose. In business one manages with persuasion, helped by some power to choose whom one works with. In government that power to choose people is largely lacking; you have to take people as they come, and get the best out of them. One can use favour and disfavour to a limited extent, but apart from that, one is left to make do with one's gift of the gab. Politicians display an astonishing variety of styles of expression. You cannot borrow someone else's, least of all your chief minister's. You must find your own, quickly, and in the meanwhile, you must avoid making mistakes. One of them was your exchange with your predecessor. It does not matter which of you was right; you can get a broad range of ratios of discretionary expenditure by varying assumptions. Asim Dasgupta has managed the budget for decades; he knows it like the back of his hand. You may think he was a disastrous finance minister. But that was not for lack of ability. He aimed to extract the maximum money from the Centre; in doing so, he was outstandingly successful. By doing so, he made your task difficult. But he did not make you finance minister. If he had had the power, he would have continued his rake's progress forever. And now that you are in the hot seat, he can be the aggressor — you can only defend. The audience before which you perform does not care about the fine points of finance; it will judge you two by your rhetoric. You may win some battles, lose some, but even if you won all, it would be a waste of time. Time is one resource you are going to be extremely short of; wasting it would be a crime. This is true of all polemic; there is no mileage in it. In the end, you will be judged by your professional performance; if you fail as finance minister, no one will remember what great speeches you gave. We all are seduced into judging the quality of speeches by their emotional impact; but however great Narendra Modi may be by that standard, he would be nothing if he managed his state badly. And so would you. Speech should be used to persuade recalcitrant people to co-operate; for the rest, you should save your time for the job in hand. Good luck! | 
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