The leather briefcase gave way to a red cloth cover. The budget was renamed bahi khata (ledger). These, and the fact that a woman finance minister presented the budget, were projected by the BJP as a big transformation.
“Why did I not use a leather bag to carry the budget documents? I thought it is high time we move on from the British hangover, to do something on our own. And well, easier for me to carry too,” Nirmala Sitharaman told journalists on Friday after presenting the budget.
The only other time a woman has presented the Union budget was four decades ago, when then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi also held charge of finance.
Traditionally, the budget papers have been carried in a leather bag. Including Arun Jaitley in the first Modi government, all finance ministers have arrived in Parliament on budget day carrying a leather briefcase.
Nirmala arrived on Friday morning carrying the budget papers in a red cloth folder, tied with a string and emblazoned with the national emblem.
Economic adviser K. Subramanian explained: “It is in Indian tradition. It symbolises our departure from slavery of Western thought. It is not a budget but a bahi khata (ledger),” he said, and promptly got trolled for wearing the very Western suit and tie.
The budget speech, the longest in recent memory – two hours and 10 minutes, was in English as usual with sprinklings of Hindi, Urdu and Tamil.
Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla congratulated Nirmala for being the “first full-time woman finance minister” to present the budget and the members for listening intently to her for “sawa do ghante” (two hours and a quarter).
Prime Minister Narendra Modi was the first to walk up to Nirmala to congratulate her after the speech. Then there was a beeline of ministers. Home minister Amit Shah, who thumped the
desks repeatedly as she spoke, however, chose to leave the House immediately after the speech.
Many pointed out privately that there little in the budget proposals that was new – these mostly appeared a repeat of the interim budget presented by Piyush Goyal, now the railway minister who was among those who congratulated her.
Nirmala herself appeared to play on the woman factor. “Nari tu narayani hai,” she said. “Woman, you are goddess.” She received a big round of applause from Modi, Shah and BJP members as she started with the proposals for women.
“It is not possible for a bird to fly on one wing,” she said, quoting Vivekananda to underline the importance of women. “From women- centric, we want to move to women-led,” she said, earning another round of applause.
Modi termed the budget “citizen-friendly, development-friendly” and “future-oriented” and congratulated the “first woman finance minister” and her team. The last five years were for “empowerment” of the poor and the next five years will turn them into “powerhouse” to make a “New India”, a 5 trillion dollar economy, he added.