Comments
In a departure from the past, India’s first full-time woman Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman carried the Union Budget documents in a red bag, reminiscent of the traditional ‘bahi-khata’
Earlier, finance ministers in different governments used to carry a briefcase to present budget, which was considered as a tradition of colonial past.
Sitharaman is presenting the full Budget for 2019-20. She carried the Budget documents in a red silk bag with national emblem.
During the Atal Bihari Vajpayee government, the then finance minister Yashwant Sinha broke the one colonial tradition of budget presentation at 5 pm.
Since then all governments have been presenting the budget at 11 am.
Bahi-Khata is referred to books of account maintained by traditional Indian businessmen.
Commenting on the shift from a briefcase to bahi-khata, Chief Economic Advisor Krishnamurthy Subramanian said the government is following “Indian tradition“.
“It is in Indian tradition. It symbolizes our departure from slavery of Western thought. It is not a Budget, but a Bahi-Khata (ledger),” he added.
Comments
COMMENT NOW
Comments
Comments have to be in English, and in full sentences. They cannot be abusive or personal. Please abide by our community guidelines for posting your comments.
We have migrated to a new commenting platform. If you are already a registered user of TheHindu Businessline and logged in, you may continue to engage with our articles. If you do not have an account please register and login to post comments. Users can access their older comments by logging into their accounts on Vuukle.