A standing joke in the capital’s political circles was that the Congress might as well set up a Ministry of Rajiv Gandhi Welfare Schemes. Any hopes of that actually happening were dashed when the Congress was meted out the most humiliating defeat of 2014 (1-7 is mathematically better). To make matters even clearer, BJP, with its first Budget, has signalled the end of an era for populist Nehru-Gandhi schemes. If not in spirit, at least in letter.

Expectedly, the paragons of populism — the Nehru-Gandhi family — have no social schemes named after them. The honour this time has been accorded to a whole bunch of new names. Here’s a refresher course on the new flag bearers of socialism in India.

Shyama Prasad Mookerjee: His picture featured prominently on the Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP) 2014 manifesto alongside Deen Dayal Upadhyaya. Born in what was then known as Calcutta in 1906, Mookerjee is the poster boy for Hindu Nationalism. He started his political career with the Indian National Congress. But soon fell out with then Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru to start his own nationalist party in 1951, Bharatiya Jan Sangh. The party was, in a way, a more liberal avatar of the Hindu Mahasabha. Mookerjee vehemently opposed a special status for Jammu and Kashmir and went on hunger strike to protest Article 370 in 1953. He was arrested for this and died the same year in custody. The new government’s first Budget has named a “Rurban Mission for integrated project based infrastructure in the rural areas” after Mookerjee. Though it has misspelt his last name in “Budget Highlights (Key Features)” posted on its website.

Deen Dayal Upadhyaya: A tall leader of the Jan Sangh, Upadhyaya was born in Uttar Pradesh in 1916. He met Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) founder K B Hedgewar when he was a student in Sanatan College in Kanpur. He was trained in the RSS education wing and became a full-time pracharak. He was Jan Sangh’s first general secretary of the party’s Uttar Pradesh branch. We have some hospitals, colleges and universities named after him in the country. The Union Budget has allotted Rs 500 crore for “Deen Dayal Upadhyaya Gram Jyoti Yojana” for feeder separation to augment power supply to the rural areas.

Madan Mohan Malaviya – This one’s almost a tribute by Narendra Modi to the people of Varanasi where Malaviya enjoys a cult-like status – he was responsible for setting up the Benares Hindu University.  Malaviya was also the man who popularised the phrase “Satyamev Jayate” until, of course, Aamir Khan took over.  Malaviya, who was four-time president of the Indian National Congress (in its original avatar), was a staunch detractor of the caste-system, in the process, often ticking-off people from his own high-caste. But the best part: we finally have a social scheme named after someone with some journalistic affiliations. Malaviya had founded a newspaper called The Leader and was chairman of The Hindustan Times for over 20 years – a period that saw the paper launch a Hindi edition. The Budget announced a Pandit Madan Mohan Malviya New Teachers Training Programme.

Jai Prakash Narayan – The first and the most original revolutionary of post-independence India – his playing field too was the Ramlila Maidan.  Indira Gandhi’s bête-noire during the Emergency, JP was, in ways more than one, responsible for the first non-Congress government at the Centre when the Janata Party came to power in 1977.  Unimportantly, among the current crop of people who have social schemes named after them, JP is the only one who has an airport named after him. We wonder though if Modi and Co know JP considered Marx quite the hero. The Budget has announced a JP National Centre for Excellence in Humanities to be set up in MP.

Honourable Mention: Though Sardar Patel doesn’t have a scheme named after him, the Budget allocated Rs 200 Crore to build his statue – the Statue of Unity.