The Union Budget 2012-13 is considered the toughest ever budget to be presented by Union Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee in his career. All economic indicators are crying for a "tough budget" from the Finance Minister. On Thursday, the economic survey tabled in Parliament and the credit policy announcement of the Reserve Bank of India together called in one voice for "fiscal consolidation". Which is equal to a tough budget.

Such a budget should have more tax receipts, more disinvestment, more reforms, less dole-outs through subsidies and less expenditure. Coalition politics of the fragile nature that the UPA government has on its hands now demands exactly the opposite – doles, freebies, populist measures, no reforms. Experts of all hue have called on the finance minister to act in the interest of the nation. Dinesh Trivedi, the railway minister, is on the verge of losing his job for having done that – he raised train fares after nine years, a bold move hailed universally, and now his own party the Trinamool Congress wants him axed. In the coming few hours, it would be known how this finacial wizard - the seasoned finance minister Pranab Mukherjee - is going to handle the situation.