'Like lotus in Dal Lake': Sitharaman recites Kashmiri poem to make a point in Budget 2020 speech

Presenting the Budget 2020 in the Lok Sabha today, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman dropped lines from a Kashmiri poem. The verse, which talked about the nation "blooming like a lotus in Dal lake", was meant to convey that everything in the budget is for this "pyara watan (beloved nation)".

"Our country like a Shalimar garden, like lotus in Dal lake, the best country in the world," she reads out the translation of the verse.

Translating it to Hindi later, Sitharaman said:

Hamara vatan khilte huey Shalimar Bagh jaisa

Hamara vatan Dal jheel me khilte huey kamal jaisa
Naujawaanon ke garm khoon jaisa
Mera vatan, tera vatan, hamara vatan
Duniya ka sabse pyara vatan"

Our country like a blossoming Shalimar Bagh
Our country like a blossoming lotus in the Dal Lake
Like the hot blood of the youth
My country, your country, our country
The world's best country

Sitharaman's use of the poetic verse in a Union budget isn't new. During her maiden budget last year, she read lines from Tamil classic "Purananooru", which is dated from before the common era.