Back On Track Poem by Asit Kumar Sanyal

If the government spends more money
Than its revenues
It's called ‘Fiscal Deficit'
And If imports more than its export
It's called ‘Current Account Deficit'
Both the deficits were running in India
year after year
India's forex reserves reached to bottom
GoI could not inspire confidence of people
NRIs started pulling their deposits
Short term credit dried up.

As precautionary measures
Govt. restricted imports
Cut its spending
Devaluated rupee by about 20 percent
Raised bank rate
Took 27 billion dollar from IMF
But it did not help
because the problem was structural.

Chandra Shekhar govt. sold
India's family gold
Airlifted 20 tons confiscated gold to Zurich
To raise 240 million dollar
But situation not came in control
Another 47 tons of gold
Pledged with Bank of England
And raised 600 million dollar
To avoid default.

Then Rao govt. came
with its FM Man Mohan Singh
in June 1991
They started reforms
To put the economy back on track
And to end the economic crisis
They took four-pronged strategy
Fiscal correction,
Trade Policy reforms,
Industrial Policy Reforms
And Public Sector Reforms
25 years passed
India not looked back
And put its economy on the track
Though many miles yet to go.