Last Updated on 30/07/2024 by wccexam Desk
The monsoon session in the Lok Sabha on Tuesday was tumultuous. While Akhilesh Yadav and Anurag Thakur clashed during the discussion on the budget, immediately after that there was a heated debate between Rahul Gandhi and Anurag Thakur. Jagdambika Pal, who was conducting the Parliament session, interrupted the leaders of both the ruling party and the opposition several times, while there was a long round of allegations and counter-allegations between the two sides. After this, the debate going on in the Parliament once again turned towards Halwa, when Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman stood up to answer during the discussion on the budget. She targeted Rahul Gandhi over the ‘Halwa Ceremony’ and also responded to his comments.
Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, while answering questions raised by Rahul Gandhi about the ‘Halwa Ceremony’, asked, “Since when did it become a photo event? Did anyone ask them how many SC and ST people were there at that time? This ceremony has been going on since the time budget papers used to be printed on Minto Road. Then the people involved in making the budget were kept in the basement for 9 days and 8 nights. Halwa was prepared by the same employees before the preparation of the budget began. This is an Indian tradition.”
In fact, Congress MP Rahul Gandhi had questioned the picture of the budget’s ‘Halwa Ceremony’ a day earlier and commented, ‘This is the distribution of budget halwa. In this photo, I don’t see any OBC officer, any tribal officer, any Dalit officer.’
Countering the question related to the number of SC, ST and OBC people in the Halwa Ceremony, the Finance Minister said, “Now, the officials of the Finance Ministry are kept in North Block for 5 days and 4 nights. Earlier, the officers had to stay there for 8 days and 9 nights. He said, ‘I am saddened by the matter of Halwa. Halwa ceremony has been happening before the budget since a long time. When there was a printing press in Minto Road, the budget was printed there. When the employees did not come out till the budget was presented, then Halwa was made for them. The staff themselves make this Halwa in the basement of North Block.
During this, the Finance Minister specifically said, ‘I want to honour two people who are printing staff. Retired officer Kuldeep Sharma was the deputy manager of the press. He got the news of his father’s death while he was in the office, but he did not come out. The second one is Subhash. He got the message of his son’s death while he was in the office. He said that my responsibility comes first. I will not go out. Making halwa, staying in the office, coming out after performing the duty… it is not right to degrade the entire process of this responsibility as well.’
What did Rahul Gandhi say?
Congress MP and Leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi on Monday targeted the government in the House by citing the photo of the ‘Halwa Ceremony’ held before the Union Budget. He said that ‘the budget halwa is being distributed, but the country is not getting the halwa’. Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, sitting in front of Rahul Gandhi’s speech, laughed and held her head. However, Speaker Om Birla did not allow Rahul Gandhi to show the photo.
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Referring to the photo, Rahul Gandhi said, ‘I want to explain this photo. This budget halwa is being distributed. I don’t see any OBC officer, any tribal officer, any Dalit officer in this photo. What is happening? The country’s halwa is being distributed and 73 percent is nowhere in it.’ Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, who was sitting in front, held her head on this comment of Rahul Gandhi.
Rahul further said, ‘You people are eating halwa and the rest of the country is not getting halwa. We have found out, 20 officers have prepared the budget, I have their names, that means these 20 people have done the work of distributing halwa in India. Out of those 20 people, only two are from 90 percent, one minority and one OBC and none of them is in this photo. That means you have kept them behind in the photo. You did not let them come in the photo.’ Rahul Gandhi had said, ‘I am seeing that the government keeps distributing halwa and who is distributing it, the same 2-3 percent people and who is getting it distributed, the same 2-3 percent… The Finance Minister is smiling, it is amazing. This is not a laughing matter Madam.