How much have you ever spent on your own birthday or the birth anniversary of someone very close to you? More importantly, if money was no object, how much would you be willing to spend? The Indian government seems to have answered that question today: Rs 100 crore. It was the last item Finance Minister Arun Jaitley mentioned before he moved on to tax reforms in Budget 2016. "I have also allocated initial sums of Rs 100 crore each for celebrating the birth centenary of Pandit Deen Dayal Upadhyay and the 350th birth anniversary of Guru Gobind Singh," Jaitley announced. He did not elaborate.

Admittedly Rs 200 crore is small change in a budget where thousands of crores that are being allocated to change and improve lives across the country. But the greater question is, why? Is there no rural school that needs Rs 200 crore to be upgraded? No growing urban centre that needs better roads ? No public hospital in a district headquarters that needs new equipment?

Let's face it, there are multiple public facilities that could benefit from that amount, as small as it can seem to a man handling thousands of crores. It's a pity the government that the Modi government would fall prey to the same failing that they criticised in the Congress.