Calcutta, Aug. 25: Julius Caesar had the luxury of refusing thrice the crown presented to him by Mark Antony.

But if Mamata Banerjee were to do so inadvertently, rest assured a corrigendum would appear, not once but thrice.

So it was at the Assembly today after the budget speech of the industrial reconstruction minister was tabled.

In the four-point corrigendum — the list of corrections that departments regularly use to revise ministers’ speeches — were three curious entries.

All three corrections declared something Bengal and most of the rest of the world know: that the new government is headed by “Smt. or Hon’ble Mamata Banerjee”.

The first said: “In Paragraph (2) line — 3, read as follows ‘…constituted government under new Chief minister Smt. Mamata Banerjee has….’”

Without the addition, the original sentence in paragraph 2 reads: “Mr. Speaker Sir, in moving this grant, I would like to apprise the House and the Hon’ble Members that the newly constituted government under new Chief Minister has taken over the charge only on 20th May 2011.”

Now the chief minister’s name has been added to the sentence, which is in order because it is not mentioned before.

However, the corrigendum does not leave the subject there. It refers to Paragraph 10, line 3 and says the sentence should read: “The new State Government under Mamata Banerjee, Hon’ble Chief Minister….”

If all blessed things in life come in threes, the corrigendum does not disappoint on this count. It advises that Paragraph 12, line 2 should be read as “under the leadership of Hon’ble Mamata Banerjee…”.

If someone was trying to add the chief minister’s name to every sentence where the words “chief minister” crop up, they missed a few instances. Some “governments” have been left unattended.

There is nothing wrong in adding the chief minister’s name more than once but old-timers — of whom there are not too many this time — said they could not recall any recent corrigendum where 75 per cent (or three-fourths) of the entries were about one name.

Industries minister Partha Chatterjee said the corrigendum was “normal’’ and in accordance with Assembly rules. “If anything is missing in the budget and has come to the notice of the minister, she or he would definitely insert that. That’s the rule and it’s normal,’’ Chatterjee said.

Former Speaker Hashim Abdul Halim felt there was no legislative compulsion to include the name. “No legislative compulsion is there for a minister to mention that the state government is under the leadership of the chief minister while placing his or her budget,” Halim said.

The corrigendum advocates an omission, too.

Paragraph 3 of the budget cites how the revival of sick units became difficult with the new economic policy of 1991. “In 1991, the economy was opened up to international competition and the revival of these sick units became even more problematic,’’ says the paragraph.

The year 1991 was the one in which Manmohan Singh became Union finance minister and launched the economic reforms.

The corrigendum says the paragraph “Stands Omitted”.

No reason was offered. Perhaps, the Trinamul Congress did not want to offend its ally, the Congress.