Even before the budget of the Narendra Modi government was presented in the Parliament, it was discussed in the media. One reason for this was its changed color appearance. Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman had taken the budget documents by covering the entire screenplay with a velvet red cloth instead of the briefcase used traditionally. It is being said that this year also the budget will be taken in red clothes. Learn the story behind it …
With this new tradition, it was said that the Modi government has also ended the old tradition of the British associated with the budget. Let me tell you that the tradition of the budget in the bag started in 1733 when the British Government Prime Minister and Finance Minister Robert Walpole came to present the budget and he had a leather bag in his hand.
There were documents related to the budget in this bag itself. This leather bag was called Buzzet in French, on the basis of this process later came to be called Budget. Then the red suitcase was first used in 1860 by British budget chief William Gladstone. It was later called the Gladstone Box and the UK budget continued to be presented in this bag continuously. After a long time the condition of this bag deteriorated and it was officially retired in 2010.
Budget started with leather bags in India
India gained independence from the British in 1947, but the tradition of the budget remained the same with the British. When the first Finance Minister of the country, RK Shanmukham Chetty, presented the budget for the first time on 26 January 1947, he also reached Parliament with a leather bag. After this, the budget continued to be presented with this tradition for many years.
This tradition changed in 1958 and Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru presented the budget in a black briefcase. After this, when the then Finance Minister Manmohan Singh presented the budget in 1991, the color of the briefcase was changed to red. Since then, the budget has been presented in red briefcases. Even the interim budget of 1 February 2019 was presented by Piyush Goyal in the red briefcase itself.
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However, instead of the red briefcase in the hands of Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, who brought the first budget of the second term of the Modi government, the budget documents appeared wrapped in red velvet cloth. This is the first time when both the leather bag and the briefcase have disappeared from the government’s budget. This new tradition of the budget is being described as a ledger.
The Chief Economic Advisor of the country, Krishnamurthy V. Subramanian said on this that it is the Indian tradition that demonstrates India’s independence from slavery and the ideas of the West. Subramaniam also said that it is not a budget, it is a ledger. That is, the name given to the budget given to the economic bag presented in leather bags and suitcases based on the word Buzzet in the French language, is now being called a ledger.
