The finance minister did not take any chances today, though he felt robust enough to skip chocolates.
Pranab Mukherjee takes pride in being cautious. All his caution was in evidence today, the most important day of the year for a finance minister, as he kept an additional pair of glasses in his pocket while delivering the Budget speech.
He was also careful not to use the ‘number lock’ function on his briefcase, in which he carried the Budget speech. In North Block, the seat of the finance ministry in New Delhi, this morning, the Joint Secretary (Budget) handed over a new, brown briefcase to the finance minister. (Every year, finance and railway ministers get new ones to carry their Budget documents to Parliament.)
Mukherjee had prepared himself against many possible mishaps, but surely he didn’t expect the opposition parties to walk out collectively during the Budget speech. This is probably the first time, according to Parliament veterans, that all opposition parties walked out and refused to hear the Budget speech.
Mukherjee had brought his Budget speech copy from home to his office. As he transferred his speech documents and wanted them to fit into the briefcase perfectly, someone reminded him about the lock. “Oh yes, I remember, once the briefcase got locked accidentally and I had a problem opening it. But now I am cautious,” Mukherjee grinned, and added, “Now I am the owner of this briefcase.”
After a chat with key officers, Mukherjee almost got up to leave for Parliament — a stone’s throw from North Block. But Finance Secretary Ashok Chawla told him, “Sir, you can relax for another five minutes. We won’t be late.” Mukherjee accepted the offer and sat back.
Only last week, he had lost his cool at a Cabinet meeting over some Railway Ministry proposals. But last night he made a conscious decision not to fall prey to his ‘anger nerve’. He was relaxed and jovial, and even told his driver while coming from his residence (13, Talkatora Road): “Drive slowly. The photographers are waiting outside. Let them take some pictures.”
Last night, he cancelled all appointments: The last a meeting with the Prime Minister. He only spoke to Congress President Sonia Gandhi and his daughter Munni on the telephone. His daughter had written a letter seeking fiscal incentives for adopting stray dogs and keeping them at home. When reminded by someone about the letter this morning, Mukherjee laughed. “Yes, I know, she has a soft spot for animals.”
During the last few weeks, Mukherjee kept a special file for personal letters coming in from various parts of the country. “Whoever had sent letters to him, dada read them all. There are at least a hundred letters with his note, ‘seen’, on them,” said Pradyut Guha, Additional Private Secretary to Mukherjee.
During his interim Budget in February last year, Mukherjee had kept chocolates in his pocket to guard against sudden low blood pressure. But on Friday, the day he presented his sixth Budget (5 full-scale Budgets and one interim), he had fruit for breakfast and felt in the pink of health. In the Lok Sabha, however, instead of normal water, he preferred glucose water, as planned by his advisor, Omita Paul.
