Chidambaram tears into Goyal’s English-Hindi speech during interim budget, says it confused people

New Delhi, Feb 1: Union Finance Minister Piyush Goyal on Friday, February 1, presented the interim budget 2019 and it tried to be a wish fulfiller, keeping the upcoming Lok Sabha election.

The minister spoke in Hindi and English, explaining some key proposals in the native language and although it was applauded by members of the ruling BJP, the Opposition took a dig over the fact.

Finance ministers traditionally present their budget speech in English but the 100-minute speech that Goyal gave had a blending of both languages. He even gave reference to the recent Hindi blockbuster 'Uri' and BJP's victory in the Haryana bypolls during his speech.

Former Union finance minister P Chidambaram, who had presented the last interim budget in 2014, tore into the NDA II's interim budget and especially Goyal's bi-lingual speech while addressing the media.

He said those who did not know Hindi didn't understand half of the budget while those who did not know English didn't get to understand half as well. He said the government left people confused, at least for a day.

Around 17 rupees a day for farmers!

He also mocked the budget's presentation of Rs 6,000 to farmers with less than 2 hectares of land annually saying it came to Rs 17 a day and said he would be surprised if that made them happy.