A Maverick In Politics
He grew up poor in Bihar. But Yashwant Sinha became India's finance minister twice and had a ringside view of events in two governments. He presents an insider's tale
The time: June 1998. The place: A room in Parliament. Finance minister Yashwant Sinha had presented the Budget and raised petrol and urea prices. Members of Parliament erupted in protest. Sinha stormed into his room where I had been waiting to interview him, asked his secretary to get a senior functionary on the phone and exploded into the phone as I was being shooed out.
Sinha is a courteous politician. But he does not have a thick skin.
In 1967, the Bihar cadre IAS officer was the deputy
