The Indus Valley Civilisation was high in the mind of Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman. So much that she created 'history' by claiming that the word sreni (guilds) was written on the Harappan seals—a script yet to be deciphered—in an attempt to highlight the spirit of entrepreneurship that existed in India, for centuries.

Twitter hasn't forgiven her. The Harappan script remains one of the greatest unsolvable mysteries of all time. While there have been many attempts, and many claims—none of them has been universally accepted—on how the symbols relate to language has defied generations of experts who have spent a lifetime trying. Sitharaman's declaration is bound to court controversy. It is widely thought that Indus Valley people perhaps, either spoke an early version of Sanskrit or proto Dravidian. And the language you choose, depends on which side of the divide you stand. So far, the co-relation of the script to a language still eludes scholars. And in the current political times, to suggest the former that the language has roots in Sanskrit, will certainly suggest viewing the past from a saffron lens.

The Harrapan reference apart, the budget has certainly chosen to focus on a more ancient Indian past in keeping with the BJP agenda. Five sites will be developed as “iconic'' sites and will have on-site museums. Two of these sites are from the Indus Valley era, which Sitharaman referred to as “Saraswati Sindhu Civilisation''—Dholavira in Gujarat and Rakhigarhi in Haryana, one of the more important discoveries from the civilisation in recent times.

The other sites include Sivasagar in Assam—a site associated with the Ahom dynasty, a clear attempt to win the hearts of the Assamese—Hastinapur in Uttar Pradesh—to keep the Mahabharat myth alive—and Adichanallur—one of the most ancient sites in Tamil Nadu. This is the first time that the focus of the budget has shifted from built heritage—last year, 17 iconic sites were chosen as a peppering of all culture and flavour including Kaziranga in Assam—to more archaeological history. The Saraswati Sindhu Civilisation seems to be the focus as even the new maritime museum that is to be set up by the Ministry of Shipping will be at great port Lothal, which dates back to the civilisation.

The government, however, for the first time has tried to boost trained manpower in the field. And a new Institute of Heritage and Conservation under the Ministry of Culture. The focus will be archaeology and museumology—both fields are desperately needed in India.

The attempt to woo tribal Indian continues. If last year's budget took an effort to preserve tribal culture—and a digital repository was being built to record songs, art and dances—this year, the budget proposed a Tribal Museum—another new museum to come up at Ranchi. The Indian Museum in Kolkata, the oldest in India, will be recurated and developed to international standards.

The allocation for the ministry of culture has gone up, with the ministry being allocated Rs 3,149.86 crore for the financial year 2020-21 (Last year, it was Rs 2,547 crore). The government will continue its focus on enhancing visitor experiences at the site. The ministry of tourism has been allocated Rs 2,500 crore.