Kerala is eagerly waiting for the Budget 2024-25. The first Budget was presented 67 years. But with just two days left for that red-letter day, an unexpected incident happened, leaving the finance minister red faced.
Finance Minister C Achutha Menon was excited to present Kerala's first Budget in June 1957. But after 'Kaumudi' leaked a part of the Budget, he went into panic mode. (Supplied)
It was 4 June 1957. Around 8 pm, the city reporter of a newspaper barged into the newsroom with a document.
An editorial discussion soon commenced over the document. The senior editors decided to publish the material.
As usual, the newspaper hit the stands and reached subscribers early the next day. And all hell broke loose.
The document that the city reporter had placed before the senior editors the previous night was excerpts from Kerala’s introductory Budget — the Budget for the Financial Year 1957-58. It was scheduled to be presented on 7 June 1957.
The Malayalam daily, Kaumudi, with one report left Kerala’s first government led by EMS Namboodiripad and others shell-shocked.
It was then claimed that political disagreement with the Communist government resulted in Kerala’s first Budget leak.
The incident rocked the first Kerala Assembly’s Budget session. It also triggered a legal battle over whether the premature publication of the state Budget would amount to an offence under the Official Secrets Act.
The EMS Namboodiripad government took the leak seriously and ordered a crime branch probe. (Supplied)
C Achutha Menon, the then finance minister, was all excited to present Kerala’s inaugural Budget.
But the Kaumudi’s disclosures on the Budget, with just two days left for the presentation, caught Menon off guard and he went into panic mode.
“When it came to my notice in the forenoon that such a publication had been made, I hurriedly consulted one to two colleagues of mine and also top officials of the government regarding this matter,” Menon later said.
Considering the gravity of the situation, a Cabinet meeting was held on that day and it was decided to conduct a thorough inquiry into the matter.
The Cabinet ordered a Crime Branch investigation “in the most comprehensive manner”.
Just before presenting the Budget for the Financial Year 1957-58, Menon made an announcement “about a certain matter of seriousness and importance connected with the publication of certain portions”. He then proceeded to deliver a statement about the leakage of
the Budget proposals.
Menon’s statement about the leak in the state Assembly. (Sourced)
He placed all leak-related facts available with the government in the Assembly.
“The case has been registered under the Official Secrets Act against one K Balakrishnan (Printer and Publisher of Kaumudi). As per the court warrant, the police searched the newspaper office concerned and Balakrishnan’s house for the manuscript copy,” the House listened to the finance minister with rapt attention.
“The said copy which must normally be kept in the office was not found. Balakrishnan said that he had destroyed it,” Menon informed the Assembly.
The finance minister, without explicitly stating, then alleged that the Revolutionary Socialist Party (RSP) might have a hand in the leak of the Budget.
“The printer and publisher is a leader of the RSP. The city reporter, G Venugopalan, who brought the material is an important RSP worker.
Also, the Book Section of the Government Press, from where the Budget is printed, has several workers belonging to the RSP union,” Menon said.
The finance minister then assured the House that “those guilty of the gross neglect, whatever their position, will be proceeded against”.
Menon concluded his statement by seeking the cooperation of the House “in taking the sternest measures against those who have betrayed, reprehensible, anti-patriotic, and immoral tendencies and unblushingly committed offences which decent journalism will abhor”.
According to the evidence collected by the police, “the material figures and information contained in Appendices V and VI of the Memorandum and the figures contained in the Introductory to the Plan Budget” were published in the Kaumudi.
In the finance minister’s words, the published matter was “comparatively unimportant.”
He affirmed it by stating, “By far the most important parts of the Budget are the taxation proposals. I must say that by some sense of abundant precaution, I did not allow this to be given for printing along with the other portions of the Budget and so, those dangerous men, whoever they be, who wanted to publish the Budget proposals could not get the taxation proposals.”
The case was that as the Budget was a secret document of the government, the reception and publication of the matter in the newspaper before it was presented in the Legislative Assembly falls within “mischief”, mentioned in Section 5(2) and 5 (1) (b) of the Official Secrets
Act,1923.
The opening paragraph of Kerala’s first Budget. (Sourced)
The case was tried at the Sessions Court, Thiruvananthapuram, and there were three accused. The first accused was Balakrishnan, Venugopal the second, and the third, the compositor of the Government Press, who was later discharged.
The sessions judge found after trial that Appendices V and VI of the Memorandum and introduction to the plan Budget are “secret documents” falling under the purview of the Act.
It was also found that the second accused obtained possession of the same and gave it to the first accused, who prepared the manuscript in his handwriting and printed and published it in the daily, Kaumudi.
The judge, therefore, found both the accused guilty under Section 5 (2) and Section 5 (1) (b) of the Act and sentenced the first accused to pay a fine of ₹100, or in case of default, undergo simple imprisonment for a month and the second accused to pay a fine of ₹75, or simple imprisonment for 21 days.
The judge also took the view that the offence committed was only ‘technical’.
Though the government approached the High Court of Kerala, aggrieved by this ‘grossly inadequate sentence’, it got dismissed. The government also failed to convince the court whether the premature publication of some parts of the Budget affected the economy of the state.
The government tried its best to evade its involvement in the Budget leak by alleging that “the machinery of the Government Press has been so shabby in its vigilance”.
It accused Kaumudi that “no press of any decency and no printer or publisher with any claim to propriety and standard should or would publish any portion of the Budget of a state”.
However, the Opposition countered it, alleging that the responsibility of protecting the sanctity of the Budget rests with the government and the “EMS government miserably failed in doing so”.
May 07, 2024
May 06, 2024
May 05, 2024
May 05, 2024
May 05, 2024
May 05, 2024
