Vijayawada: Finance minister Buggana Rajendranath punctuated his Budget speech on Thursday with quotes and proverbs from Rabindranath Tagore to APJ Abdul Kalam, enthusing the members from both sides of the House.
Speaker Tammineni Sitaram was among those who praised the FM for the treat he presented alongside the listing of facts and figures often in economic jargon.
The minister cited a quote from Gurudev Ravindranath Tagore, “Where the mind is led forward by thee into ever-widening thought and action, into that heaven of freedom, my Father, let my country awake” (Gitanjali 35).
“This thought is a powerful call for action and an assertion of one’s belief that change is achievable. These emotions resonate in our hearts even today because it is in the very nature of humankind to be forever in the quest for a better world,” the minister added.
He said the final phrase, “Let my country awake,” could quite easily be replaced with, “let the world awake,” because it is about universal aspirations.
Quoting lines from the famous poem “If-” written by English writer Rudyard Kipling, “If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster, And treat those two impostors just the same... If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue, Or walk with Kings—nor lose the common touch,” the finance minister said “these lines are a true tribute to chief minister Jagan,” as “we see in him an acknowledgment that, while you cannot always prevent bad things from happening, you can deal with them in a good way.”
Explaining about the Dr YSR Rythu Bharosa-PM Kisan scheme, Rajendranath cited Thomas Jefferson to say, “Cultivators of the earth are the most valuable citizens. They are the most vigorous, the most independent, and the most virtuous”.
He cited John F. Kennedy, “The farmer is the only man in our economy who buys everything at retail, sells everything at wholesale, and pays the freight both ways.”
Mentioning the Dr. YSR Sanchara Pasu Arogya Seva and the YSR Pasu Bhima Padhakam, the finance minister quoted an old Telugu proverb, "Paadi leni illu, pedaleni chenu undadhu. Goddu vachina vela, bidda vachina vela," meaning, “Our farmers give livestock an importance to equal to their children.”
Rajendranath also invoked Louis Pasteur, the French chemist and microbiologist whose work laid the foundation for vaccination -- “When I approach a child, he inspires in me two sentiments —tenderness for what he is and respect for what he may become.”
Rajendranath quoted A.P.J. Abdul Kalam on education, “Learning gives creativity, creativity leads to thinking, thinking provides knowledge and knowledge makes you great. Dream is not that you see while sleeping, it is something that does not let you sleep.”
Regarding rural development and skill development, the FM quoted Mahatma Gandhi, “The soul of India lives in its villages” and “The difference between what we do and what we are capable of doing would suffice to solve most of the world’s problems.”
About youth advancement, tourism & culture, the FM quoted Benjamin Disraeli words, “The youth of a nation are the trustees of posterity”, and went on to cite Dr BR Ambedkar with his quote on social security, “A just society is that in which an ascending sense of reverence and a descending sense of contempt are dissolved into the creation of a compassionate society.”
