Union Budget | When finance ministers delivered poetic Budget speeches

From quoting Thiruvalluvar to Victor Hugo, our finance ministers never missed the opportunity to share their poetic influences

1. Budget 1991 | Dr Manmohan Singh

Often considered one of the most influential budgets of independent India, Finance Minister Dr Manmohan Singh, in what is regarded as the longest Budget speech in terms of words (18,650 words), quoted the famous Urdu poet Allama Iqbal:

"Yunan-o-Misr-o-Roma sab mit gaye jahan se ab tak magar
Hai baki naam-o-nishan hamara,
Kuchh baat hai ke hasti mit’ti nahin hamari
Sadiyon raha hai dushman daur-e-zaman hamara"

Translation: Greek, Egyptians, and Romans have all vanished, but we are still here. There must be something special that we still exist despite the whole world being against us.

He also included Victor Hugo's famous quote, "No power on earth can stop an idea whose time has come," in his speech.

2. Budget 1992 | Dr Manmohan Singh

The subsequent year too, the Finance Minister did not shy away from quoting yet another Urdu poet, Muzaffar Razmi.

"Kuchh aise bhee manzar hain taareekh ki nazron mein,
Lamhon ne khataa ki thi, sadiyon ne sazaa paayee."

Translation: Even this has happened in history; mistakes made in moments created trouble for centuries.

3. Budget 2001 | Yashwant Sinha

Yashwant Sinha delivered a poem to emphasise that the reforms outlined in the Budget were aimed at second-generation reforms, growth, and equity with efficiency, although the identity of the quoted poet is unknown.

"Taqaazaa hai waqt kaa ke toofaan se joojho,
kahaan tak chaloge kinaare kinaare."

Translation: The times require you to fight the storms. How long will you keep walking on the shore?

4. Budget 2004 | Jaswant Singh

In the interim budget presented by Jaswant Sinha under the premiership of Atal Bihari Vajpayee, the Finance Minister incorporated a couplet by an unknown poet:

"Garib ke pet mein dana,
Grihini ki tukia mein anna."

Translation: Food in the belly of the poor, and money in the purse of the homemaker.

5. Budget 2013 | P Chidambaram

Former Finance Minister P Chidambaram used a couplet from Tirukkural, a classic Tamil work by Thiruvalluvar comprising 1,330 couplets, to illustrate the concept that India may go further provided it makes the correct decisions and choices.

"Kalangathu kanda vinaikkan thulangkathu thookkang kadinthu seyal."

Translation: What clearly eye discerns as right, with steadfast will and mind unslumbering, that should man fulfill.

6. Budget 2015 | Arun Jaitley

The former finance minister, delivering his first full-year budget since Prime Minister Narendra Modi's stunning election victory, predicted that growth in the fiscal year beginning in April would jump to between 8 and 8.5 per cent. He also incorporated a couplet in his speech:

"Kuchh to gul khilaye hain, kuchh abhi khilaane hain,
Par baagh mein ab bhi kaante kuchh puraane hain."

Translation: We have made a few flowers bloom and have to bloom more, but there are a few old thorns in the garden.

7. Budget 2016 | Arun Jaitley

The subsequent year, Jaitley said that he knew how to restore the 'poor' status of the economy that he had inherited from the previous government. He then used the occasion to recite an Urdu couplet on a similar situation.

"Kashti chalaane walon ne jab haar kar di patwar hamein,
Lehar lehar toofan mile aur mauj mauj manjdhaar hamein.
Phir bhi dikhaya hei hamane aur phir yeh dikha denge sabko,
In halato mein aata hai daria karna paar hame."

Translation: When the exhausted sailors handed the oar of the boat to us, everywhere we faced storms and rapids. But we have shown and will keep on showing that we know how to cross the river in such conditions.

8. Budget 2019 | Nirmala Sitharaman

When presenting India's big and audacious goal of building a $5 trillion economy in the next several years, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman referenced a couplet by Urdu writer Manzur Hashmi.

"Yaqin ho to koi rasta nikalta hai
hawa ki ot bhi le kar chirag jalta hai."

Translation: You can find a way if you have faith in yourself, just as an earthen lamp can also light up despite air blowing around.

9. Budget 2020 | Nirmala Sitharaman

The following year, Sitharaman, during her opening remarks to the Union Budget 2020, quoted a passage from a poem penned by Kashmiri poet and Sahitya Akademi winner Pandit Dina Nath Kaul. The poem makes reference to Kashmir's Shalimar Bagh and Dal Lake, emphasising that India belongs to all of her residents. This came after Article 370, which granted Kashmir special status, was repealed.

"Hamara vatan, khilte hue Shalimar Bagh jaisa
Hamara vatan, Dal jheel main khilte hue kamal jaisa
Nau jawanon ke garam khoon jaisa
Mera vatan, tera vata, hamara vatan
Duniya ka sabse pyaara vatan"

Translation: Our country is like a blooming Shalimar Bagh, our country is like the lotus blooming in the Dal Lake; it is like the boiling blood of the youth, my country, your country, the world’s most beloved country.

She also went on to quote the Tamil poet, Thiruvalluvar, in the 160-minute long speech.

"Piniyinmai Selvam Vilaivinpam Emam Aniyenpa Naattiv Vaindhu"

Translation: The country's five jewels are good health, wealth, farm productivity, happiness and good defence.

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