View from the gallery: When the PM crossed over to the other side

The PM asked Farooq Abdullah (Srinagar) (who was kept in long detention by the central government two years ago) whether he was okay

When Parliamentary Affairs Minister Pralhad Joshi got a note within the first 10 minutes of Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman’s Budget speech, he thought a bit. Then he conferred briefly with his colleague, minister of state, Arjun Meghwal. 

More whispered consultations with Bharatiya Janata Party whip in the Lok Sabha, Rakesh Singh followed. Singh scurried to clusters of BJP MPs sitting in the middle of the Treasury benches. What it was all about was clear a few minutes later when the volume of applause from the Treasury benches suddenly increased. Unaccountably, the biggest applause was reserved for the finance minister’s announcement that