Indian Finance Minister Arun Jaitley arrives at the Parliament House to present Union Budget for the year 2015-16, in New Delhi, India, Saturday, Feb. 28, 2015. The Economic Survey, an annual report on the state of Asia’s third-largest economy, said Friday that India’s economy will grow more than 8 percent in the upcoming financial year, which would make it the world’s fastest growing economy, surpassing China. (AP)
Majority comes with its benefits in a democracy as Finance Minister Arun Jaitely will agree.
For the first time in many years, a Finance Minister was seen, and heard, making a budget speech without his voice being drowned out by boos and slogans from the opposition benches. In fact, the lack of noisy opposition also means the FM too had a more relaxed time, compared to his predecessors.
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The only time there was a bit of a ruckus was when he announced financial suppport for some monuments across India and MPs from areas not named shouted the names of locations excluded.
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However, in contrast to his predecessors, Jaitley did not seem all that comfortable peppering his speech with poems and couplets… not in Punjabi and certainly not in Tamil.
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He started with a small couplet, after which his prose was mostly rhyme-less.
After the first ten minutes or so, the minister chose to sit down and make his speech. Just a few minutes before, Speaker Sumitra Mahajan had offered him the option of taking a seat. The FM, who has not been in the best of health lately, took the offer soon after.