Ashok Ogra
Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman will present the Budget for 2024-25 on 1 February 2024 and this will be her sixth Budget presentation. Article 112 of the Indian Constitution envisages laying down the annual budget in the Parliament.
Earlier the Union Budget was presented on the last working day of February, but the BJP government has changed this tradition. From 2016 onwards, the Union Budget is presented on the first day of February so that it could be materialized before the beginning of the new financial year in April.
Did you know the word ‘budget’ has its origins from the French term ‘bougette,’ which translates to ‘a small bag’? That’s the reason why our respected finance ministers are seen holding a ‘budget bag’ for photo-op, before presenting the budget in the Parliament!
While India got freedom from the British regime in the year 1947, it wasn’t the first time when the country saw its first-ever finance budget. The first Indian Budget was presented on February 18, 1869, by Mr. James Wilson, after the East India Company introduced the idea of the Indian Budget on April 7, 1860.
Perhaps, the most famous quote in the budget was given by George Bernard Shah, when he said those immortal lines, “The Budget is an attempt to equate one’s earning capacity with yearning capacity.”
That probably captures the essence of all types of budgets; be it the household budget, corporate budget, or a national budget. In all the cases, it is about far ends and scarce means.
Post-independence, India’s first-ever Finance Budget was presented on 26 November 1947 by then finance minister, RK Shanukham Chetty, announcing an outlay expenditure plan of Rs 197.39 crore. Revenue for the year was budgeted at Rs 171.15 crore. The first budget of the Republic of India was introduced on February 28, 1950, by John Mathai.
By the end of the decade, when finance minister Moraji Desai presented his Union Budget on February 28, 1959, the Indian growth story was shaping up strongly. Revenue receipts had grown to Rs.757.51 crore while expenditure stood at Rs.839.18 crore.
In the1963-64 Union Budget, the government also recognized the need for strong armed forces after India faced a tough battle with the Chinese in 1962. The budget saw an increase in the Defence budget to Rs 708.51 crore. Defence budget again saw traction in 1966-67 Union Budget after the 1965 war with Pakistan.
Incidentally, the credit for presenting the highest number of budgets (10) goes to Moraji Desai, followed closely behind by P. Chindabaram and Pranab Mukherjee with 9 and 8 respectively. Two finance ministers – Mr. H.N. Bahuguna and Mr. K.C. Neogy – did not present any Union Budget, despite holding reigns of the finance ministry. This happened because both these gentlemen held office for such short durations, in between two budget tenures that they had no opportunity to present one.
In recent times, the finance ministers have used quotes of poets, saints, wit in their budget speeches, not only to add colour to a boring document but also to strengthen their arguments.
Here are a few such instances:
Madhu Dandavate was one of the first finance ministers to make use of somewhat labored puns to present his specific excise proposals. In his budget speech of 1990, he famously quipped, “I propose to remove excise duty on pickles altogether in the hope that this will lend some flavor and spice to my budget.”
While budget speeches have always been known to be a long and monotonous affair, the one given in 1991 by the then-finance minister Dr. Manmohan Singh took things to a whole new level. Often considered one of the most influential budgets of independent India (1991-92), Finance Minister Dr Manmohan Singh, quoted the famous Urdu poet Allama Iqbal:
“Yunan-o-Misr… o-Roma sab mit gaye jahan se ab tak magar Hai baki naam-o-nishan hamara, Kuchh baat hai ke hasti mit’ti nahin hamari Sadiyon raha hai dushman daur-e-zaman hamara”
(Greek, Egyptians, and Romans have all vanished, but we are still here. There must be something special that we still exist despite the whole world being against us.)
He also included Victor Hugo’s famous quote, “No power on earth can stop can stop an idea whose time has come,” in his speech.
Yashwant Sinha delivered a poem to emphasize that the reforms outlined in the Budget were aimed at second-generation reforms, growth, and equity with efficiency, although the identity of the quoted poet is unknown. “…
Taqaazaa hai waqt kaa ke toofaan se joojho, kahaan tak chaloge kinaare kinaare.”(The times require you to fight the storms. How long will you keep walking on the shore?)
In Union Budget 2009-10, Pranab Mukherjee invoked Kautilya to articulate his vision : “In the interest of the prosperity of the country, a King shall be diligent in foreseeing the possibility of calamities, try to avert them before they arise, overcome those which happen, remove all obstructions to economic activity and prevent loss of revenue to the state”.
Another gem used by Pranab Mukherjee was when quoting Shakespeare in his 2012 budget speech:”I must be cruel to be kind.”
In 2013 budget, P Chidambaram used a couplet from Tirukkural, to illustrate the concept that India may go further provided it makes the correct decisions and choices:
“Kalangathu kanda vinaikkan thulangkathu thookkang kadinthu seyal.”
(What clearly eye discerns as right, with steadfast will and mind unslumbering, that should man fulfill.)
Delivering his first full-year budget in 2015, Arun Jaitley predicted the growth to jump to between 8 and 8.5 per cent. He also incorporated a couplet in his speech:
“Kuchh to gul khilaye hain, kuchh abhi khilaane hain, Par baagh mein ab bhi kaante kuchh puraane hain.”
(We have made a few flowers bloom and have to bloom more, but there are a few old thorns in the garden.)
But the credit for relying heavily on poets and littérateurs goes to the current Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman who in her 2019 budget speech set an ambitious goal of building $5% trillion economy in the next several years. To illustrate her point she referenced a couplet by Urdu writer Manzur Hashmi:
Yaqin ho to koi rasta nikalta hai hawa ki ot bhi le kar chirag jalta hai.”
(You can find a way if you have faith in yourself, just as an earthen lamp can also light up despite air blowing around.)
The following year, Sitharaman, during her opening remarks made reference to Kashmir’s Shalimar Bagh and Dal Lake, emphasizing that India belongs to all of her residents: “Hamara vatan, khilte hue Shalimar Bagh jaisa Hamara vatan, Dal jheel main khilte hue kamal jaisa Nau jawanon ke garam khoon jaisa Mera vatan, tera vata, hamara vatan Duniya ka sabse pyaara vatan”
(Our country is like a blooming Shalimar Bagh, our country is like the lotus blooming in the Dal Lake; it is like the boiling blood of the youth, my country, your country, the world’s most beloved country.)
What the Finance Minister perhaps didn’t realize was this evocative poem was recited by Dina Nath Kaul (popularly known by pseudonym Nadim ) at a public gathering in Srinagar to honour Abdullah.
Until the year 2000, the Union Budget was announced at 5 pm on the last working day of the month of February. This practice was inherited from the Colonial Era when the British Parliament would pass the budget in the noon followed by India in the evening of the day. It was done because of the time difference between the two nations. It was Yashwant Sinha who changed the ritual by presenting the union budget at 11am). Similarly the 92 year old practice of having two separate budgets- Union budget and Railway budget- was discontinued from the year 2017.
Suresh Prabhu who when presenting the Railway budget in 2015 resorted to the following wit: “Hey Prabhu, Yeh Kaam Kaisa Hoga.”
Nirmala Sitharaman holds the record of delivering the longest Budget speech in India’s history in 2020 which was 2 hours and 42 minutes long.
The shortest Budget speech was delivered by former Finance Minister Hirubhai Mulljibhai Patel when he presented the Interim Budget. His 1977 Budget speech was 800 words only.
In terms of the number of words, Dr. Manmohan Singh’s 1991 Budget speech is the longest in India’s history. It was 18,650 words long.
The average duration of India’s budget presentation is between 90 and 120 minutes, thereby making it exhaustive for the presenter as well as the listener.
It was still the year 1955 that the budget was printed in the English language only. Starting from 1955-56; however, the Indian government decided to print the budget in two languages – English and Hindi. The move was taken to make Hindi more mainstream, as the primary spoken language across the country.
Regardless the humour used or the duration of the budget speech, ultimately the budget presents an opportunity for the government to make a statement about what it stands for. A budget should reflect the values and priorities of our nation and its people.
The British Philosopher, Edmund Burke, was a lot more forthright about the Budget being a means and not an end. He summed it up in his inimitable style, “If we command our wealth, we shall be rich and free. If our wealth commands us, we are poor indeed.”
This is particularly true for our country where the GDP has been showing robust growth but per capita income stood at Rs.1.97 lakh in 2023- which is far too low for a country aiming to be the third largest economy by the end of this decade. Similarly, income disparities that have grown substantially need to be addressed.
One hopes that Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman will keep Edmund Burke wise advise in mind when she presents the Union Budget ( though interim) on February 1 or the main budget post the elections in July,2024. A Union Budget should not only become an expression of numbers but an expression of our aspirations.
(The author is works as Advisor for reputed Apeejay Education, New Delhi)
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