Nirmala Sitharaman wins hearts in LS by using Hindi, Urdu and Tamil in budget speech

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ANI Politics
Last Updated : Jul 05 2019 | 4:10 PM IST

Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman presented her maiden budget on Friday and while doing so, the leader made her speech interesting by using multiple proverbs and couplets in Hindi, Urdu and Tamil languages.

Sitharaman not only read out facts but also highlighted her government's intentions by quoting several leaders and revolutionaries, who brought significant change in the Indian society.

In the morning, she started off saying that the Budget 2019 strives to build a "mazboot desh ke liye mazboot nagrik and added, "Our (Centre) objective is for a mazboot Bharat."

With an intent to turn the country into a 5 trillion dollar economy and to leave an impact on the audience, the Union Minister again used a few words of Hindi and stated, "Government keeps Gaon (village), Garib (poor) and Kisan (farmer) at the centre of everything we do, of every programme."

Besides, while talking about the women empowerment in the Lower House, Nirmala Sitharaman got cheers from the Parliamentarians for quoting Swami Vivekananda to describe the role of women in Indian politics. "Naari tu narayani (All women are goddesses) is country's tradition. There is no chance for the welfare of the world unless the condition of women is improved. The government believes social-economic transformation is taking place because of women participation in last one decade. We have a record of 78 women in this house."

Later, Sitharaman, who is India's first full time Finance Minister, also begged pardon her for her Hindi and later narrated few Urdu lines saying, "Yakeen ho to koi raasta niklata hai, hawa ki ot (protection) bhi le kar charagh jalta hai (if there is belief then a road ahead will open up, sheltered from the winds the lamp will burn brightly)." This couplet was written by famous Urdu poet Manzoor Hashmi.

Interestingly, Tamil was also used this year after a long gap of five years during the Budget session. Sitharaman quoted a famous poem from Sangam Era work of 'Purananooru' to drive home her point on the tax policy. Earlier, only former finance minister P Chidambaram was heard using Tamil during 2013 Budget Session.

The Purananuru is a collection of 400 poems composed by multiple ancient Tamil poets.

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First Published: Jul 05 2019 | 4:00 PM IST

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