If you belong to the generations that witnessed some of the Budgets after India’s Independence, you will remember red, black and even a coloured tan briefcases being used.
When then finance minister RK Shanmukham Chetty presented India’s first Budget in November 1947, he carried the documents in a leather portfolio bag.
Since then, the bag has become an essential accessory at the Budget ceremony.
Some ministers, including TT Krishnamachari and Morarji Desai, ditched the bag for files.
In 2019, finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman chose to use a ‘bahi khata’ (cloth bag) to carry the Budget papers.
In 2020, Sitharaman yet again changed the tradition.
She switched out her ‘ bahi khata’ for a tablet — the first time when the union Budget was presented paperless, owing to the COVID 19 pandemic.
Here’s everything you need to know about the journey of the Budget papers: