Yashwant Sinha: Starting a trend

...And most of it has to do with a play on the titles of popular motion pics. It was, arguably, Yashwant Sinha (Finance Minister between 1998 and 2002) who started the trend. In 1999, he mentioned Dil Se and Hum Aapke Hain Kaun?; in 2000, he did Hum Saath Saath Hain; in 2001, it was the turn of Chori Chori Chupke Chupke; and in 2002, Kabhi Khushi Kabhie Gham. Jaswant Singh resisted the temptation to play with motion-pic titles in his speech in 2003, although one of his interjections, Garib ke pet me dana; Grihni ki tukia mein anna sounded suspiciously like a dialogue from a Bollywood B-movie. Current Finance Minister P. Chidambaram did say Main Hoon Na on July 8, but since it was in response to an interruption, and not part of his speech it probably will not go into the records of Parliament
(Yashwant Sinha's references, however, will).

-Amanpreet Singh

Timing The Budget

As budget speeches go, P. Chidambaram's 2004 one was a full 25 minutes shorter than Jaswant Singh's 2003 offering, but it was 10 minutes longer than Yashwant Sinha's 100-minute sprint in 2000. Here, in case you are interested in time, are the finer details of the past four.

2000 Yashwant Sinha 100 minutes
2001 Yashwant Sinha 115 minutes
2002 Yashwant Sinha 111 minutes
2003 Jaswant Singh 135 minutes
2004 P. Chidambaram 110 minutes

-compiled by Amanpreet Singh