Dressed in a white saree, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman posed outside the ministry this morning with a tablet in a ‘bahi khata’ sleeve, ahead of her eighth consecutive Budget speech. She then met President Droupadi Murmu at Rashtrapati Bhavan, and she gave the go-ahead for the Budget presentation.
After decades of Finance Ministers carrying briefcases to Parliament on Budget day, Ms Sitharaman in 2019 introduced the ‘bahi khata’ to break from the colonial legacy and add an Indian touch. Two years later, in 2021, she moved to a paperless budget by carrying a tablet wrapped in a ‘bahi khata’ sleeve.
The symbolism of carrying a briefcase on Budget Day is rooted in the origin of the word ‘Budget’. ‘Budget’ comes from the French word ‘bougette’ which means a small leather briefcase.
The tradition of Budget speech goes back to 18th Century Britain when the Chancellor of the Exchequer was asked to open the Budget while presenting his annual statement. In 1860, British Budget chief William Gladstone used a red suitcase with the Queen’s monogram to carry documents. After Independence, India’s first Finance Minister RK Shanmukham Chetty used a leather portfolio case on Budget day. Over the years, different kinds of briefcases were used by Finance Ministers till Ms Sitharaman brought back the bahi khata before moving to the tablet.
Ms Sitharaman is presenting her eighth consecutive Budget. The late Morarji Desai holds the record for the maximum number of Budget speeches — ten — but these were not consecutive. Former Finance Minister P Chidambaram has presented nine Budgets.
For the special day, Ms Sitharaman is wearing a saree as a tribute to Madhubani art. Dulari Devi, a 2021 Padma Shri awardee, had presented the saree to the Finance Minister when she visited Bihar’s Madhubani for a credit outreach activity. Dular Devi had requested the Finance Minister to wear the sarre for the Budget day.