The following booklet titled ‘Second Five Year Plan Is The Real Mischief-Maker’ is a report on Mr. C. Rajagopalachari’s speech as delivered at a symposium in Madras by the Madras Centre and the Forum of Free Enterprise and other such organisations reflecting on the 1957 Budget Proposals. He pointed  out the implications of heavy cost burdens on the poor due to the Plan’s proposed taxation measures which raised price levels. He further dubbed the budget proposals as “politically and financially wrong”, which he believed should have been subjected to public review. Furthermore, he criticised the taxation levels which were not proportional to national incomes and invited public opinions so as to keep the financial climate away from a situation of “financial brinkmanship”. In his concluding comments, he stated that the Plan was a “monolithic cast” over the nation’s public affairs, which had been “imprisoned within the stone walls of the plan and been robbed of necessary flexibility”.