Arun Jaitley's budget speech peppered with digs at UPA rule, some poetry

New Delhi: Finance Minister Arun Jaitley peppered his speech with digs at the previous UPA regime and sprinkled it with interesting phrases taken out from Urdu poetry and religious scriptures as he presented his first full-fledged budget in Lok Sabha on Saturday.

He was wearing a light blue shirt, a black trouser and a deep-blue Nehru jacket for the much-watched occasion. His sister Madhu Bharghava and neice Punita were among those watching from the visitors' gallery as Jaitley presented the budget.

The 62-year-old spoke for nearly 100 minutes. He started his speech while standing, which is customary. However, after about 22 minutes, he felt uncomfortable and sat, with the permission of Speaker Sumitra Mahajan.

Jaitley has not been keeping too well since last few months and feels uncomfortable after standing for some time. After around 20 minutes of his speech, the Speaker on her own asked Jaitley if he wanted to speak while sitting. He thanked her and said he would seek her permission when he required it.

About two minutes later, he sought permission to sit. As Speaker allowed him, Transport Minister Nitin Gadkari vacated his seat to make way for him, shifting to the fourth row.

As Jaitley occupied Gadkari's seat to deliver his speech while seated, Prime Minister Narendra Modi was seen directing a staffer of Lok Sabha to shift his glass of water closer to the Finance Minister. He was also provided with some juice.

In his speech, Jaitley took digs at UPA's rule. "Kuch to phool khilaye humne, aur kuch phool khilane hai Mushkil yeh hai bag me ab tak, kaante kai purane hai (We have blossomed some flowers and have to grow many more. But we are facing difficulty with some legacies)," he said in an apparent attack on the previous UPA government.