New Delhi. Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Tuesday hit back at Leader of Opposition Rahul Gandhi, saying that the Halwa Ceremony is an emotional matter for the employees of the Finance Ministry and criticizing it is an ‘insult’ to them. Responding to the discussion on the budget in the Lok Sabha, Sitharaman said, “Halwa Ceremony has been going on since the time the printing press of the Finance Ministry used to be in Minto Road. In our country, there is a tradition of sweetening the mouth before doing any good work. This is an emotional matter for the employees of the Finance Ministry and criticizing it is an insult to them.”
He said, “Halwa ceremony is an emotional matter…how can you take it lightly.” While participating in the discussion on the budget on Monday, Rahul Gandhi had claimed that 20 officials have done the work of preparing the country’s budget, but out of these only one is from minority and one is from OBC (Other Backward Class) and not a single Dalit or tribal is among them.
Along with this, Rahul had mentioned the halwa ceremony before the budget and said, “In this government, only two-three percent people are preparing halwa and the same number of people are eating halwa and the rest of India is not getting it.” In response to this allegation, Sitharaman said, “The photo program started in 2013-14. The Finance Minister of the then Congress-ruled UPA (United Progressive Alliance government) went to the basement of North Block and traditionally distributed halwa.” She said, “Why was the halwa ceremony not canceled at that time? You (Gandhi) had the power of remote control. How many officers from Scheduled Caste, Scheduled Tribe or OBC were there in the ceremony at that time?” The Finance Minister said that such statistical calculation of the caste of the officers present in the halwa ceremony was not done earlier in the UPA rule.
Sitharaman said, “… this is a conspiracy… and that is why this question is being asked. Now why are people being divided by asking the caste of all the people involved in this?” She said that this should be avoided. Such an emotional issue should not be taken lightly.
Sitharaman said, “Congress leaders like Jawaharlal Nehru and Rajiv Gandhi were against giving reservation to SC, ST and OBC and the leaders of the same party are now asking why they were not present in the Halwa ceremony.” After the Halwa ceremony, the employees associated with it do not come out until the budget is released. They have to stay away from everyone for five nights and four days. They are able to come out only after the budget. It is necessary to do this for the confidentiality of the budget.
Referring to the challenges associated with budget preparations, Sitharaman said, “Deputy Manager Kuldeep Sharma participated in budget preparations despite the death of his father and did not come out. Similarly, Shri Subhash did not come out even after the death of his son. Rahul Gandhi’s statement is an insult to such employees.”
Halwa ceremony is considered to be the last stage of finalizing the budget document. It is a process of ‘quarantining’ the officials and employees of the Finance Ministry involved in the preparation of the Central Government’s budget. In this way, they are completely isolated from the outside world for a few days. These officers and employees stay in the ‘basement’ of North Block (Finance Ministry office) till the budget is presented in Parliament. Complete secrecy is maintained there. They come out only after the Finance Minister completes his budget speech in the Lok Sabha.