Lines that framed a nation’s future: When Budget speeches weren’t prime-time shows

Before Budget Day became a televised and social-media spectacle, Union Budget speeches were sober, number-heavy statements addressed to Parliament, not markets. Shantanu Nandan Sharma revisits pre-1991 Budgets to show how finance ministers blended hard fiscal choices with philosophy, geopolitics and dry humour. From war-time taxes to witty asides in the House, these speeches reveal the Budget as a human document, not just an economic one.