Major faux pas! Indian state's top leader reads out annual budget speech of previous year

The chief minister of the state of Rajasthan in India's northwest committed a monumental blunder in the state legislature when he came to deliver the annual budget speech on February 10. Ashok Gehlot, one of the topleaders of the Congress party and the Rajasthan chief minister, started reading the budget speech of the previous year and continued for about seven minutestill hewas interrupted by the chief whip. From the state capital Jaipur to the national capital New Delhi, the faux pas created a significant political uproar.

Gehlot's not-meant-to-be budget speechwas mentioned in the parliament in New Delhi by the Union finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman, who said that she praysto God that "nobody should make such a mistake."

Former Rajasthan chief minister Vasundhara Raje also hit out at Gehlot over the goof-up. "For eight minutes, CM kept reading the old budget. When I was the CM, I used to repeatedly check and read before presenting the budget. You can imagine how safe the state is in the hands of a CM who reads out an old budget,"she said.

Gehlot's defence

Amid criticism, the chief minister retorted, "You (Opposition) can point out only if there's a difference b/w what's written in the budget in my hand and its copies were given to the House members. If a page was added to my budget copy by mistake, then how does the matter of leaking of budget arise?"

Later, the House proceedings resumed and Gehlot presented his budget.

"I feel sorry, what happened was by mistake,"he said.

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The state of Rajasthan is set to go to polls later this year. The state remains one of the fewest in the country which is governed by the Congress party amid its diminishing political footprint since the dominant rise of Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led Bharatiya Janata Party since 2014.

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