Ahead of the Union Budget 2022, all eyes are on finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman who broke tradition last year and ditched the traditional ‘Bahi Khata’ to opt for a ‘Made-in-India’ iPad, trying to adhere to Covid-19 preventive measures. The iPad made its debut in the 2021 Budget, replacing its predecessors — the ‘Bahi Khata’ and the historic budget briefcase. Wrapped in a red case bearing the emblem of the government of India, the iPad too grabbed headlines. It’s a tradition for finance minister to have a ‘Bahi Khata’ or the briefcase in which the annual financial statement is carried to Parliament.
A Look at the Journey of the Budget Briefcase
On Budget day, the Union finance minister poses with the budget bag outside Parliament. Independent India’s first finance minister RK Shanmukham Chetty had carried a leather portfolio to present the first budget in 1947.
The word ‘Budget’ originated from the French word Bougette, which means leather briefcase.
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The tradition of carrying the budget briefcase was handed over to India by the British. In Britain, the Chancellor of the Exchequer (equivalent to the portfolio of the Finance Minister) poses with his suitcase in front of 11, Downing Street before the Budget speech.
India’s budget briefcase was a copy of the ‘Gladstone box’ that is used in the British budget. In 1860, the then British budget chief William E Gladstone used a red suitcase with Queen’s monogram embossed in gold to carry his bundle of papers. It came to be known as ‘Gladstone Box’.
In Britain, one budget briefcase is passed on from a finance minister to another, whereas in India, different FMs used to carry different briefcases. The original Gladstone bag had become so shabby that it was officially retired from British service in 2010.
The budget briefcase came into being because Gladstone’s speeches were extraordinarily long and he needed a briefcase to carry his speech papers.
Indian finance ministers started carrying a hardbound briefcase from 1970 to 2019. Unlike Britain, its shape and colours used to vary.
In 2019, Sitharaman ditched the colonial legacy of a budget briefcase for a ‘Bahi Khata’ to carry Union Budget Papers. As her move attracted buzz, she launched a veiled attack on the Congress, saying: “For Budget 2019, I did not carry a suitcase. We are not a suitcase-carrying government. A suitcase also denotes something else: suitcase-taking, suitcase-giving. Modi ji’s government is not a suitcase government.”
The ‘Bahi Khata’ reappeared in 2020 before being replaced by a ‘Made in India’ iPad.
Another old budget tradition was broken during the Atal Bihari Vajpayee government when the then Finance Minister, Yashwant Sinha, presented the budget at 11 am instead of 5pm. Since then, governments have maintained the schedule of 11 am for presentation of budget.
As Nirmala Sitharaman gears up to present a new budget on February 1, all eyes will be on how she brings the papers to Parliament.
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Source: News18