Finance minister N. Sitharaman in her budget speech on Saturday proposed to set up a tribal museum in Ranchi.

“Adivasiyon ko museum mein rakhne ki taiyari hai (Preparation to keep tribals in museum),” chief minister Hemant Soren quipped when reporters asked him about his reaction to the proposal.

Hemant said he had asked the Prime Minister for a tribal university in the state, not a museum. The CM also said that the budget does appears to be not of the Bharatiya Janata Party but of the “Bharatiya Businessmen’s Party”.

“Railways, BSNL toh bik hi raha hai, ab desh bhi bikne ki taiyari mein hai (Railways and BSNL are anyway being sold off, now preparations are on to sell the country),” he asserted.

Union minister for tribal affairs and Khunti MP Arjun Munda hailed the museum proposal. Rs 53,700 crore has been proposed for the uplift of the Scheduled Tribes in 2020-21, Munda added. “This budget reflects the country’s aspirations, for which I congratulate the honourable Prime Minister Narendra Modi and finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman,” he said.

He said the Budget talks of everyone’s economic development: “For farmers, the 16-point formula will come as a great help. The government is committed to double the income of farmers by 2022. Through Krishi Udaan Yojana, eastern states, especially those areas dominated by the tribals, will get access to international markets. The middle class will benefit from the changes in tax slabs.”