The Saffron Hand

As the new Modi government gets down to the job of presenting its first full Union Budget, all eyes are on 'Dharmakshetra', a building in New Delhi's government residential colony of RK Puram that serves as the headquarters of the Swadeshi Jagran Manch (SJM). The complex has been built on a road named after Babu Genu, a pre Independence star of the Swadeshi movement. An economic think tank of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) the ideological parent of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) the SJM had guided the first Modi government's stand on all important economic matters and tried to steer it towards what was loosely termed as swadeshi economics, though the government, despite their opposition, did open up several sectors to foreign direct investment (FDI), including insurance.

Today, as the government starts its new