FM busy cooking halwa at Budget time, her junior telling people to 'goli maro': Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury

Taking potshots at BJP's Union ministers, senior Congress leader Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury on Wednesday said that at a time when the government should be poring over the Union Budget, the Finance Minister is busy "cooking halwa" while her junior is going around allegedly telling people to take the law in their hands and shoot down the so-called "traitors".

The Congress party leader in Lok Sabha questioned Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman's and MoS Finance Anurag Thakur's absence from a crucial meeting of industrialists called by the prime minister to hold a discussion ahead of the Budget.

"The Budget is going to be presented on February 1. We know that there is a lot of activity in the Finance Ministry ahead of the presentation of the Budget. But what do we see here? The Prime Minister calls top industrialists to have a discussion and the Finance Minister is not present there," Chowdhury said while speaking with ANI.

"And our Minister of State (Finance), Anurag Thakur who should be there, lectures about the shooting," he added.

"On one hand, our Finance Minister is cooking halwa instead of focussing on the Budget and on the other hand her junior minister says 'goli chalao'. That gives an idea about what will happen to Hindustan," he said, taking a dig at Anurag Thakur's controversial "Goli maro salo ko" slogan raised at an election campaign rally in Delhi.

Ahead of printing of documents related to the Union Budget 2020-21, the customary 'Halwa Ceremony' was held on January 20 at the Ministry of Finance, North Block.

Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, MoS Finance Anurag Thakur and other government officials were also present at the ceremony.

The 'Halwa Ceremony' marks the beginning of the locking up of a number of Finance Ministry officials inside the Ministry, who remain cut off from the outer world until the presentation of the Budget by the Finance Minister in the Lok Sabha.

As a part of the ritual, which has continued for long, 'halwa' is prepared in a big 'kadhai' and served to the entire staff in the Ministry.

Commenting on the violence in West Bengal's Murshidabad, the Congress leader who is also an MP from the place said: "Locals of Sahebnagar were protesting peacefully against the Citizenship Amendment Act. Suddenly, TMC goons attacked them with bombs; one person died in the incident. At least four people sustained injuries and were admitted to hospital.