Halwa an emotional, sentimental matter for Finance Ministry staff: Sitharaman
New Delhi, Jul 30: Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Tuesday defended the customary pre-budget Halwa ceremony, saying that it has been going on since budget papers were printed at a press on Minto Road, and the sweet dish was prepared by the staff themselves as an Indian tradition before the start of something auspicious.
Taking on Leader of Opposition Rahul Gandhi, who dubbed the traditional halwa ceremony as "budget ka halwa", Sitharaman said it is an emotional matter for the Finance Ministry staff who spend 5 nights and 4 days in quarantine to ensure the secrecy of the Budget proposals.
"Halwa is an emotional and sentimental matter... How can you deal (with) such an important matter so lightly," Sitharaman said.
Responding to Gandhi's remark that in the halwa ceremony photo no SC, ST or OBC was being seen, Sitharaman said it became a photo event from 2013-14 when the Finance Minister in the Congress-led UPA Government went to the cellar of North Block to distribute the customary pre-budget halwa.
"Why was the halwa ceremony not cancelled at that time? You (Gandhi) had the remote control power. How many SC, ST or OBC officers were there at the ceremony at that time?" Sitharaman questioned.
She said such statistical calculation of the caste of officers present at the halwa ceremony was not done earlier in the UPA regime.
"...It is a conspiracy that is happening now and that is why this question is being asked now... Why divide people now by asking (the) caste of everyone involved?," Sitharaman said, adding that one should refrain from presenting such an emotional ceremony in poor light.
She said that Congress leaders like Jawaharlal Nehru and Rajiv Gandhi were against reservation to SC, ST and OBCs and the leaders of the same party are now asking why they are not present in the halwa ceremony.
The minister also narrated two incidents which showed the commitment of officers attending the halwa ceremony before they enter the North Block cellar for budget printing.
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Two injuries, one DNF, a DQ as India end messy World Relays campaign
Gaborone (Botswana) (PTI): Amoj Jacob and Ragul Kumar got injured during the men's 4x400m and 4x100 races respectively as India ended their World Athletics Relays campaign in disappointment on the second day of competitions here on Sunday.
The Indian camp had high hopes of making the 2027 World Championships in the men's 4x400m relay but the team did not finish (DNF) the race as Jacob suffered cramps and pulled out of the race after taking the baton from the first leg runner Dharamveer Choudhary. Rajesh Ramesh and Vishal TK were to run in the third and fourth legs.
Those teams which could not qualify for the 2027 Beijing World Championships by reaching the final round of each of the six relay events on Saturday were given another chance in the second qualification round on Sunday.
The top two teams in each of the two heats (in all six relay events) booked the Beijing ticket on Sunday.
India will now have to try and qualify for the World Championships through the Top Lists of the World Athletics, which is a long and tedious process.
In the men's 4x100m race, third leg runner Ragul Kumar fell down the track after failing to hand over the baton inside the exchange zone to fourth leg runner Gurindervir Singh, which clearly showed the lack of coordination among the runners.
Harsh Santosh Raut and Animesh Kujur ran the first two legs.
The Indian quartet was disqualified and Kumar was seen being taken away from the Field of Play with the help of the volunteers.
It was a comedy of errors in the case of the women's 4x100m race, which saw the baton being dropped during an exchange between first leg runner Tamanna and second runner Nithya Gandhe, though the Indians finished the race in 53.09 seconds.
Gandhe started running quite a distance, but after realising that the baton was not in her hand, she turned and ran back to pick it up.
The only silver-lining for the Indian contingent was the national record time in the mixed 4x100m relay race, though the quartet of Ragul Kumar, Nithya Gandhe, Animesh Kujur and Sneha SS finished sixth in heat number two with a time of 41.35 seconds, bettering the previous national mark of 42.30 seconds set in March in Chandigarh.
The mixed 4x400m relay quartet of Theerthesh P Shetty, Kumari Saloni, Nihal William and Rashdeep Kaur ended at fifth in heat number one with a time of 3 minutes and 19.40 seconds.
On Saturday, all the five Indian relay teams had failed to make it to the respective final rounds and thus missed out on the 2027 World Championships berths.
