Laboring in Secrecy on India's Budget

In a subterranean workshop in India's Ministry of Finance, roughly 100 government workers are nearing the end of their captivity.

For nine days and nights, while they proofread, printed and bound 10,000 copies of the budget to be presented on Saturday morning, the workers have been sequestered behind doors sealed with wax and denied access to telephones or email, said officials who have taken part in traditional "lock-ins" in the past.

Food brought in for the workers has been tasted to reduce the risk of food poisoning, which would require removal from the "sanitized" area to a designated room in a government hospital, watched by a "shadow" from India's Intelligence Bureau. Indeed, some of the pressmen are themselves agents from the bureau, a retired intelligence officer said, planted in the workshop to guard against possible leaks to corporations.

India's budget always gets a lot of attention, but this year nerves are especially taut. Nine months have passed since Prime Minister Narendra Modi won an election vowing to revive India's economy, and some of his supporters are expressing impatience with the pace of change.

Though economic growth figures look promising, a drumbeat of editorials from industrialists and economists have exhorted Modi to announce something momentous and politically risky in his first full-year budget, like sharp subsidy cuts or tax overhauls. Some have taken an urgent tone, warning that the window of opportunity for structural change has already begun to close.

Whatever the budget contains, it is sealed in a remarkable cone of secrecy. India's elaborate confidentiality measures date to the time of the British Raj, when taxes on tea or spices could set off hoarding or dumping. More elaborate precautions were introduced after independence, when government spending essentially drove the economy.

Some analysts say the need for confidentiality is receding now, as outside factors, like consumer spending and corporate investment, grow in importance. But for the workmen who oversee the budget's production, secrecy remains an article of faith.

"I am proud to say that the Indian budget has never been leaked," said one official who has taken part in more than a dozen "lock-ins," who like most other officials contacted would speak only on condition of anonymity. "The process ensures that it is a total secret. Who wants to change it? Nobody! Nobody will take the risk!"

On Feb. 19, the workers - copy editors, binders, computer technicians, machine operators, plate makers and other laborers - filed into a warren of pressrooms and dormitories in North Block, the government's drafty, elegant Raj-era office complex.

"I have seen the place where all this happens in the Finance Ministry, and it is like a cellar, a subterranean chamber there - it is huge," said S. Narayan, a former finance secretary, in a telephone interview. "It must have been built very long ago. I cannot imagine in the last 20 or 30 years anybody digging such a big hole in the North Block."

The lock-in begins with a ceremony in which the workers share halwa, a dense, sweet dessert, said the official who has taken part. Incense is burned around the printing presses and binders, giant machines imported from France and Germany.

"We feel the budget is a puja," or religious ceremony, he said. "We worship that machine on that day. We pray to the God that the machine will work on that day."

The entrances are sealed after that, with three rings of security put in place, and a only a handful of Finance Ministry officials allowed to enter or exit. The workers bring quilts, but little else, and say goodbye to their families, leaving a contact number in the Finance Ministry in case of emergencies. What follows are long spells of unbroken work, fueled by unlimited tea, with breaks for sleep in barracks.

The official, who acknowledged missing his family during his time underground, said he could recall only one instance when a worker left the lock-in. It involved a poor laborer from Rajasthan, who got the news that his 6-month-old baby had died.

The man left North Block under the guard of a team from the Intelligence Bureau, traveled to his village for a night - and the next day, the official said, he returned to the lock-in to continue work.

"He said, 'Sir, I came back, because if I do not, you will be discomfited, and your work will suffer,'" the official said. "I was very proud."

Intelligence agents perform background checks on all the workers who take part, watching for unexplained infusions of cash, said the retired intelligence officer. He said there was particular concern that press workers would be cultivated by representatives of large corporations, who might reach out through mutual friends, or send gifts for a child's birthday, in hopes of securing an early glimpse of the budget.

This could help them profit from the policies about to be announced, for example by investing in infrastructure companies, if large projects were planned, or in auto companies if excise duties were going to be changed.

Such leaks would not be unprecedented. Over the last two weeks, the police in Delhi have arrested at least 16 people - government clerks, top executives, independent consultants and a news reporter - on charges of corporate espionage for illegally procuring government documents, which they allegedly provided to India's top energy companies.

"Dealing with a human brain is a very difficult task," the retired intelligence officer said. "You may be sitting with me and say that I am a very good man. You may take all the measures. But nobody knows how I will act."

The pressmen's work ends a few hours before dawn on Saturday, when trucks arrive to cart away the budget documents. By early afternoon, when Finance Minister Arun Jaitley has finished his budget speech, the workers will emerge blinking into the sunlight. There is relief, of course, but mostly they feel pride, said the official who has taken part in the lock-ins. He has never read a budget document himself, but that hardly matters.

"For me, these days are very exciting," he said. "I am a printer. I want to print such a document that all the world wants to know about." (Hari Kumar and Suhasini Raj contributed reporting)

© 2015, The New York Times News Service