First the effusive plaudits. Then the doubts.

The plaudits rained down on Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman. Ajit Ranade accused rating agencies of bias "because India has always got a raw deal when it comes to its own sovereign rating". "A full chapter in the Economic Survey was devoted to rebutting, if not debunking, the models of international rating  agencies." Why the attack on rating agencies before the budget? A case of 'getting your retaliation in first', perhaps. "For now, though, the country is a winner, and kudos to the finance minister for a spectacular budget." "Arguably, for the first time ever, an Indian government has chosen to go fully clean on Internal and Extra Budgetary Resources, refrained from engaging in the gimmickry of borrowing from its own enterprises (issuing special bonds to them), and under-promised on revenue with every likelihood of over-delivering on the estimated budget deficit of 6.8% for 2021-22," wrote Prof VA Nageswaran. They are telling the truth because they can blame the coronavirus for making a mess of the economy since 2016 and the preemptive attack on rating agencies is to play a victim of bias. "Finance minister Sitharaman has pulled off a good budget in an extremely tough situation," appreciated Niranjan Rajadhyaksha. However, everything depends on whether the government is actually able "to deliver on the big capital spending push" and "to credibly stick to the fiscal stabilization path that has been laid out". The Budget "marks a bold break from the past", wrote an editorial in the Mint. "Not only is it big on what was once considered leftish profligacy, it brushes aside a stiff fiscal law." In a speech. Sitharaman announced government policy of moving away from the "socialist baggage" of the past, but "the Modi government has been practising socialism more than the preceding Congress-led governments, which only professed it loudly and eloquently", wrote P Venkateshwar Rao Jr. Modi has started innumerable social schemes and announced Rs 6,000 to farmers to win the 2019 election. ""The budget has pinned its hopes on supply-side economics, while the econommy is facing a demand-side crisis," wrote Roshan Kishore. Spending on the rural employment scheme MGNREGS will fall from Rs 1.15 trillion in 2020-21 to Rs 730 billion in 2021-22, spending on Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana will fall from Rs 405 billion to Rs 275 billion and PM-KISAN will fall from Rs 750 billion to Rs 650 billion. "The expenditure budgeted for 2021-22 is less than 1% higher than the revised estimates for the current year. It is in this sense that there is no immediate stimulus in this budget despite the  developments wih respect to health and infrastructure," wrote Prof Pulapre Balakrishnan. "While the share of health spending is expected to see a small decline, the same for education is expected to drop sharply in fiscal 2022 compared to the past few years," wrote the Mint. Despite not doing anything, economists at Nomura "believe rating agencies could perceive it negatively, and that there is a chance of a rating downgrade by Fitch". So while economists in India applaud responsible spending, rating agencies see potential profligacy. They must know something is going to hit the fan. That's why the attack on agencies before the Budget. Blame the furriners. May work.