A few minutes before the 2013 budget presentation in Lok Sabha on Thursday, finance minister P Chidambaram had troubled times from none other than six of his own senior colleagues in the cabinet.

As Chidambaram was explaining the salient features of the budget, he mentioned that the union ministers should spend more and more since it will lead to fiscal discipline.

No sooner had he uttered these words than he was confronted by a voice of dissent from union rural development minister Jairam Ramesh. Ramesh argued how Chidambaram could expect him to spend more when he is releasing percentage of annual allocation. 

Other than DMK minister MK Alagiri and minister of independent charge (environment and forests) Jayanthi Natrajan, 29 cabinet ministers and nine ministers of state were present at the customary meeting of the council of ministers at the PMO chambers where the finance minister presents the gist of the union budget minutes before he presents them before the Lok Sabha.

Phone call to Yashwant Sinha
“I wanted to jump out of the car when P Chidambaram called me last week. First I wanted to ascertain whether this is the original voice,” said senior BJP leader Yashwant Sinha, the former finance minister. The real story is that Chidambaram wanted Sinha’s suggestion on the recommendations of the standing committee on finance. Chidambaram made a mention of this conversation in his budget speech on Thursday.

SMS doing the rounds
On Thursday also, a CPM MP shared the script of a bulk SMS which has become a rage among the phone subscribers and have been read by more than 3 lakh people. The SMS reads:

“Amazing consistency of Rahul Gandhi: In Punjab, he named Amrinder Singh as CM candidate, people voted Akalis to power; In UP, he tore SP's manifesto, people made Akhilesh the CM;  In Tripura, he asked people to throw CPM out of the state, they made Manik Sarkar the CM for fourth consecutive term:)”