Chandigarh: Punjab Finance Minister Manpreet Singh Badal makes sure his Budget speeches are not long, boring paragraphs of unbroken prose. This year, he quoted the famous Urdu poet Mohammed Iqbal, UK’s former Prime Minister Winston Churchill, renowned economist Thomas Piketty and Urdu poet and academician Jagannath Azad in his address.
Delivering the Budget speech in the Punjab Assembly Monday, Manpreet reminded the House of what Churchill said in 1941 during the Second World War: “Give us the tools, and we will finish the job.” He was referring to the chance that Punjabis had given the Congress party to come to power — one that had served them well.
Piketty was remembered for his saying,”Refusing to deal with numbers rarely serves the interests of the least well-off.”
Manpreet and Iqbal, of course, are inseparable — given that the Urdu poet is among the minister’s favourites.
“I am reminded of the hauntingly beautiful words of the great poet of the Punjab, Allama Iqbal,” said Manpreet.
Yehi ain-e-qudrat hai, yehi asloobe fitrat hai,
jo hai rahe amal mein gaamzan, mehboob-e-fitrat hai.
(This the law of Nature, the way by her prescribed.
He who treads the path of action is the nature’s favoured child).
And to end the Budget speech, Manpreet chose a couplet penned by Jagannath Azad, poet and academician who was considered an authority on Iqbal.
Nazar jamti toh kya jamti, kadam rukte toh kya rukte
Ki humne apni manzil ko bhi, apni rehguzar samjha
(How could my gaze fix, How could my feet rest,
For I treated even my destination, as my path…)
A lyrical tradition
Reciting couplets has almost become a tradition in Budget speeches. It breaks the monotony of the lengthy text full of technicalities and statistics. Former prime minister Dr Manmohan Singh is remembered for quoting English and Urdu poets in his Budget speeches as Union finance minister in the early 1990s.
Most of his successors, including Yashwat Sinha and Jaswant Singh, continued with the tradition. Pranab Mukherjee chose to quote Kautilya while Congress leader P. Chidambaram quoted Tamil poet Thiruvalluvar in one of his Budget speeches.
Arun Jaitley has followed the trend and his Budget speeches are considered livelier than any other finance minister’s. The interim budget of the Union government presented by Piyush Goyal, however, had no quotations or couplets. A report lists some of the interesting couplets quoted by Union finance ministers over the years.
Himachal, a class apart
If the Budget speeches of any state have taken this tradition to incomparable heights it is certainly Himachal Pradesh. While no one really knows how far back the tradition goes, it continues to this day.
Instead of just having a few couplets at the beginning and the end of the Budget speech, the Himachal Assembly ones are replete with all sorts of Hindi and Urdu quotes, sayings, slogans, mottos et al. The number of such additions can be anything between 15 to 20 and the Budget speech ends up sounding more like a mushaira or a poetry recitation exercise.
Chief Minister Jairam Thakur, who is also the finance minister, presented his government’s second Budget earlier this month. He spoke for three hours in the Assembly, reading out his Budget speech that had 15 couplets.
Yu hee nahin milti rahi ko manzil,
Ek junoon sa dil mein jagana padhta hai
Poocha chidiya se kaise banaya aashiana boli
Bharni padhti hai udaan baar baar
Tinka tinka uthana padhta hai
(A traveller doesn’t get his destination easily
A passion has to be lightened up…
A bird was asked how its nest was built, it said,
It has to take off repeatedly
And pick bits of straws).
………………………………………………
Safar ka ek silsila banana hai
Ab aasman talak raasta banana hai…
(A succession of a journey has to be made
A road to the sky has to be made).
………………………………………………
Garibi se uthan hun Garibi jannta hun
Aasman se jyaada zaeen ki kadar jannta hun…
(Have made it out of poverty, I understand poverty
More than the sky, I know the importance of the ground).
………………………………………………………….
Saare itr ki khushboo aaj mand padh gayi
Mitti par paani ki boondein, jo chand padh gayi…
(The fragrance of all perfumes faded
When few drops of water fell on the soil).
These are some of the better ones from this year’s budget speech. The authors of these gems remain unknown as none of the couplets have been attributed to anyone.
Last year too, after Thakur was sworn in as the head of the newly-elected BJP government of the tiny hill state, he had sprinkled his first Budget speech with similar aphorisms.
Mujhe unchyion pe dekh kar hairan hain kuchh log,
par unhone mere pairaon ke chhaale nahin dekhe
(Some people are surprised at my achievements
They haven’t see the blisters on my feet).
And this was another:
parvaah nahin chaahe zamana jitna bhi kharaab ho
chalunge usi raah par jo seedhi aur saaf ho
(Doesn’t matter if the world is rotten,
Will walk on the straight and clean path).
Thakur also chose to quote a bit from Atal Behari Vajepayee’s poem:
Tute hue taaron se foote vaasanti swar
Pathar kee chhati se ug aaya nav ankur
Jhare sab peele paat, koyal kee kuhuk raat
Prachi mein arunima kee dekh rekh paata hun
Geet naya gaata hun, geet naya gaata hun.
(Season’s love arise from the shooting stars
new life sprouts from the rocks
all yellow leaves peel off, nightingale sings at night
I can see the glow of dawn
I sing a new song, I sing a new song…..)
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Not just BJP CM’s hallmark
It’s not just the BJP CM who delivers entertaining Budget speeches. Leaders of the erstwhile Congress regime were masters of this art. The 2017-18 Budget speech, the last of the Congress before elections, was delivered by then chief minister Virbhadra Singh, who also held the finance portfolio.
It had its share of couplets. For example:
Darr mujhe bhi laga faasla dekh kar par main badhta gaya raasta dekh kar
Khud b khud mere nazdeek aati gayi meti manzil mer hosla dekh kar.
(I was afraid realising the long distance but I continued on the path.
The destination came close to me by itself, seeing my courage.)
He even quoted Broker (sic) T Washington: “No race can prosper till it learns that there is as much dignity in tilling a field as in writing a poem.”
And another couplet:
Hawa ko keh do ke, khud ko aazma ke dikhaye
Bahut chiraag bujhati hai, ek jala ke to dikhaye.
(Tell the wind to try and test itself. It blows so many lamps. Let it light one?).
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Gone are those days when brilluant persons like Subhash Chandra Bose who stood 4th. in the ICS Indian civil services examinations & he quit to join rather he faught against the Britishers & raise INA lead the Indian national army as C-in-C of it did coalition with Germany & Japan to fight against Britishers in WW-2 . Such are the brilliant statesman of India. Nowadays the morale of IAS, IPS etc. civil services has gone down.