The two-hour long budget speech was warranted: FM Sitharaman
Expressing her regret for putting people to inconvenience, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman gave her justification of why her two hour plus budget speech days ago was necessary. She said that it was inevitable since every aspect of the economy warranted a careful response.
The budget speech apparently drove the minister to a point of exhaustion. When asked if such a lengthy budget speech was warranted, which was not seen in the past few decades, the minister said, "It was needed. Definitely it was needed. I would have completed reading out the remaining portion after drinking water," she said addressing a press conference.
A Kashmiri verse, quotes from Tamil poets and references to Saraswati-Sindhu civilisation peppered Sitharaman's 160- minute long marathon budget speech on February 1 which got cut short at the fag end after she felt unwell.
"Sorry. I agree, all of you were put to inconvenience. I don't know if you thought (why) this lady was talking for about two and a half hours. But I had things to be spelt out and we have a duty to implement and we will do it," she said.
"I did not speak to create any record, but every aspect of the economy warranted a careful response and it made the speech lengthy,” she said.
After around 150 minutes, Sitharaman appeared tired and sipped water at least thrice before cutting short her speech in Parliament. In between when a staff member went to get a glass of water, Sitharaman took a candy that was offered by Gadkari.
Ministerial colleague Harsimrat Kaur Badal also came up to the finance minister and offered her a candy. Rajnath Singh and Amit Shah were also seen talking to her. Unable to continue, she told the Speaker to consider the rest of the speech as laid in the House and sat down. Soon after the proceedings were adjourned, Modi walked up to her and greeted her.
Sitharaman's first budget speech in July 2019 went on for around 137 minutes.
See What’s Next in Tech With the Fast Forward Newsletter
Tweets From @varindiamag
Nothing to see here - yet
When they Tweet, their Tweets will show up here.