Mood in Treasury benches damp after death of MP, protests in House

As soon as the Lok Sabha assembled, the Congress said it smelt a conspiracy in Ahamed's death

Union budgets are contested affairs, and the contest over the 2017-18 Budget began late the previous evening, with the debate over whether it should be postponed by a day in deference to the death of Indian Union Muslim League (IUML) MP E Ahamed. 

Finance ministry sources said sombrely that though Ahamed was dangerously ill, medical technology needed to be given a chance. It seemed that his death would be made public only after the Budget had been presented.

But the mood changed in the morning; the doctors declared him dead. It became clear that the government was determined to go