New Delhi: The Budget day in India is the most important day for any Finance Minister. This is because the performance of the Finance Minister is evaluated in Parliament by the Opposition and by public at large. Every Finance Minister starts his/her Budget day with Ganesh puja at the corridors of the Finance Ministry of the North Block, offering flowers to the lord, before heading to the Parliament for budget presentation.
“It’s a custom, untold and unwritten in our Finance Ministry. However, but every Finance Minister has adhered to it without any exception over the years, no matter what his/her religious belief is. Every year on Budget day, we all, including the Finance Minister and the budget team do that, like Halva ceremony before printing of the document starts,” revealed a retired senior official of the ministry of finance who worked there for decades.
“I don’t remember I ever missed to bring flowers for the Ganesh puja for ‘sahabs’ (the Finance Minister and budget team) in these years. No Finance Minister ever left the office for the Parliament without offering flowers to our Ganesh ji. It’s our custom that when we embark on a journey of something good, we start with Ganesh puja, like a marriage card, you must have seen,” told an employee of the Finance Ministry.
Dr Bhagwat Karad, Minister of State for Finance also started his Budget day with Ganesh puja at home Tuesday before heading to the North Block. Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman also did the same, revealed her personal staff once when asked.
So what Pranab Mukherjee used to do on Budget day when he was the Finance Minister? “I don’t remember ‘baba’ (father) performing any special puja on Budget day at home. However, baba was quite religious and he never left home for work without his morning walk and puja, but not any special one on Budget day,” said Sharmistha Mukherjee, the daughter of late Pranab Mukherjee, who was the Finance Minister in the UPA government.
