New Delhi. Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Tuesday hit back at Leader of Opposition Rahul Gandhi, saying that the Halwa Ceremony is an important stage in the preparation of the budget and criticizing it is an ‘insult’ to the employees associated with it. 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 eating something sweet before doing any good work. Criticizing it is mocking and insulting the employees involved in the preparation of the budget.” 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 a minority and one is an 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 it and the rest of India is not getting it.” In response to this allegation, Sitharaman said, “After the halwa ceremony, the employees associated with it do not come out until the budget is released. Earlier they had to spend nine days and eight nights in isolation, but now 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 the preparation of this budget, he said, “Deputy Manager Kuldeep Sharma participated in the budget preparations despite the death of his father and did not come out. Similarly, Mr. 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. This is the process of ‘isolating’ the officials and employees of the Finance Ministry involved in the preparation of the central government’s budget. In this way, they become 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.