Dressed in an off-white Mangalagiri sari with a purple-golden border, finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Tuesday presented her seventh consecutive Union Budget, reading from a tablet PC that was wrapped in the red-coloured ‘bahi-khata’ style pouch she has used for all her Budget speeches in place of the leather briefcase — called ‘budget’ from the French bougette that means a small leather bag — which used to be standard gear of finance ministers before her.
Her 83-minute-long speech, delivered with confidence that came as much from being a veteran as perhaps the PM’s trust in her, witnessed frequent applause from the treasury benches in what marked a break from the restraint they had shown so far even in the face of the opposition’s aggression and despite having larger numbers.
There were, predictably, jeers from the opposition benches but they did not seem to bother Sitharaman. In any case, the 71 rounds of applause would have buoyed her.
The opposition reserved its loudest boos for the lavish proposals for Andhra Pradesh and Bihar. Opposition members chanted slogans ‘sarkar ko bachane wala Budget’ and ‘sarkar bachao, kursi bachao Budget’ as the FM read out a slew of measu res for the two states.
Congress and DMK members from Tamil Nadu and Kerala were seen raising demands for relief and rehabilitation for the two states hit by the fury of heavy rainfall. They appeared incensed as Sitharaman made some announcements for rain-hit Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand, but they never threatened to scale up an allopposition effort because of their own stakes in Bihar and Uttarakhand.
Frequent comments by Trinamool member Saugata Ray and DMK’s Dayanidhi Maran drew the ire of Speaker Om Birla, who warned the two. The FM’s daughter Vangmayi Parakala and relatives including Vidya Lakshminarayan were seen in the viewers’ gallery.
Her 83-minute-long speech, delivered with confidence that came as much from being a veteran as perhaps the PM’s trust in her, witnessed frequent applause from the treasury benches in what marked a break from the restraint they had shown so far even in the face of the opposition’s aggression and despite having larger numbers.
There were, predictably, jeers from the opposition benches but they did not seem to bother Sitharaman. In any case, the 71 rounds of applause would have buoyed her.
The opposition reserved its loudest boos for the lavish proposals for Andhra Pradesh and Bihar. Opposition members chanted slogans ‘sarkar ko bachane wala Budget’ and ‘sarkar bachao, kursi bachao Budget’ as the FM read out a slew of measu res for the two states.
Congress and DMK members from Tamil Nadu and Kerala were seen raising demands for relief and rehabilitation for the two states hit by the fury of heavy rainfall. They appeared incensed as Sitharaman made some announcements for rain-hit Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand, but they never threatened to scale up an allopposition effort because of their own stakes in Bihar and Uttarakhand.
Frequent comments by Trinamool member Saugata Ray and DMK’s Dayanidhi Maran drew the ire of Speaker Om Birla, who warned the two. The FM’s daughter Vangmayi Parakala and relatives including Vidya Lakshminarayan were seen in the viewers’ gallery.