The Budget 2001 was all about shuffling between television studios for some, and surfing channels for others. But whether you were hopping studios or channels, this budget was what television made you believe it was. Had it not been for that gadget in your living room, bedroom or wherever else, even the `new deal' that Finance Minister Yashwant Sinha rolled out for the starry-eyed Indian would have remained a staid affair. Making a hero of the budget and its maker (remember how he entertained the budget audience with the Chori Chori Chupke Chupke line), television has once again shown its might.

Mr Guha Thakurta though has serious concern about some of the anchors of the budget specials. There were anchors wearing two hats of different hues, leaving not much room for enough debate, according to him. Referring to Dr Omkar Goswami on Doordarshan, he says: ``Since Dr Goswami is the chief eco-nomist of CII, it would have been more appropriate if he was identified as such while he presented the budget programmes.'' While being the chief economist of CII, Dr Goswami is also an anchor on TV, that too on Doordarshan, which is funded by the public money. ``Viewers should know that he wears more than one hat so that their views don't get coloured,'' he says.

Other than views of the audience, their lingo too got coloured, courtesy budget on TV. It was no more a cigarette-up-petrol-down kind of a budget.

Even a lay man, having watched hours of television budget, has been drawn to big-ticket words like fiscal deficit, GDP growth and, of course, VRS. And, what was Mr Rahul Bajaj's verdict-a nearly perfect 9 on 10-became the verdict of hundreds and thousands who had watched him deliver his budget opinion on tele.

From number crunching to analysis, from debates to battles, from impact to reactions, TV channels got into the act a few days before the budget day and didn't give up till many days later. Doordarshan, Star, Zee, CNBC, Aaj Tak, Sahara, Jain, BBC and CNN (is anyone missing?): they all ran the budget race. Competition, naturally, was fierce. At times one speaker was found on two channels at the same time. Was it cloning in the genome mapping age, was how someone reacted! Some of them were even helping out the speakers at the CII and FICCI headquarters, where all the action was for at least two days, with their channel microphones! Tales apart, the next TRP ratings should be a thing to look forward to. Who knows, may be the Ks (KBC and Kyunki Saans Bhi Kabhi Bahu Thi etc) of the TV world would make way for the Bs (Budget not Bachchan) in the rating game.

Television, it appeared, had drawn everyone in its spell. Right from the master of the ceremony, the finance minister, who checked into at least three channels on the budget day. Other ministers followed suit. The print media too was pretty much into the business of talking, for a change. Most newspaper editors (mainly pink) were seen holding forth on some channel or the other for many days from covering the budget countdown to dealing with the aftermath.

Also, exciting was to see Ms Shireen making an attempt to compete with Mr Prannoy Roy, her former colleague and mentor. So while Mr Roy and his team were trying to fight the `Budget Battle Ground' on Star, Shireen and her team were dishing out the `Budget Trivia' on Zee. For newcomer Aaj Tak, budget came as a chance to prove its mettle. Sahara, which would turn one in a few days from now, too focussed on budget with Mr Vinod Dua and Dr Vivek Bharati giving their insight into the issues of the day. Jain claimed that it had an advantage over the other channels as it could now up link directly. CNBC offered a lot of scope for debate. BBC was among the first few channels to have the FM's interview. And CNN was business as usual with its budget special Q&As.

DD, as usual, was the talking point. Although DD had the exclusive rights for the budget telecast, it didn't make an effort to rake in big moolah. The national broadcaster did sell the budget signal to other broadcasters, but at an unbelievably low price. The channels, to whom DD sold the Budget signal, had to just dish out anything from Rs 15 lakh to Rs 20 lakh each.

These channels made up for the expenditure on the signal by devising advertising strategies while DD had to contend with the paltry sum.

For instance, Aaj Tak had companies sponsoring its graphic plates for the budget bulletin. Zee struck a deal with at least four sponsors. Jain TV had sectoral sponsorship: IT companies sponsoring the section on impact of the budget on IT and FMCG companies for that particular sector, etc.

Now that the party is over, it's time to do the dishes, says Mr Guha Thakurta. But the hangover remains. Don't you think it is television which should score 9 on 10 for the byte by byte account of the budget, rather than the budget itself? Perhaps, Mr Rahul Bajaj would beg to differ.