New Delhi: Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman cut short her Union Budget speech in the Lok Sabha as she felt unwell after speaking for a record 160 minutes.
Sitharaman had only two pages of her Budget speech unread when she appeared uneasy and was seen wiping sweat from her forehead. She was offered candies by her ministerial colleagues, but that did not help and she opted to discontinue the speech asking Speaker Om Birla to consider the remaining part of her matter as read.
This was the longest Budget speech by any finance minister. Sitharaman, 60, broke her own record of a 2-hour-17-minute-long maiden Budget speech in July 2019.
The Finance Minister later laid budget documents and demand for grants for the next financial year in Rajya Sabha. The Upper House, which met around 1:30pm for tabling of budget documents, was adjourned as her speech was still continuing in Lok Sabha.
The Rajya Sabha met again at 1:55 pm but was again adjourned for 10 minutes as Sitharaman reached late. When she arrived in the Upper House, many members approached her and were seen asking her wellbeing.
A Kashmiri verse, quotes from Tamil poets and references to Saraswati-Sindhu civilisation dotted Sitharaman’s 160-minute long marathon Budget speech.
As the minister, clad in a bright yellow sari with a light green border, spoke, some of her remarks, including regarding ‘Beti Bachao Beti Padao’ programme, were met with protests from the Opposition benches.
Apart from a Kashmiri verse, which she rendered in both Kashmiri and Hindi, the minister also quoted poets Thiruvalluvar and Kalidasa, among others.
Many of the announcements including reduction in personal income tax rates were welcomed with thumping of desks by treasury benches. Prime Minister Narendra Modi too joined the members in the applause.
Before leaving the House, Sitharaman waved at her family members who were standing in the gallery. Her daughter Vangmayi Parkala and three other family members were in the House for the speech.
Congress President Sonia Gandhi and Samajwadi Party patriach Mulayam Singh Yadav were among those conspicuous by their absence in the House.