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Combo of file images shows Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman arrives at Parliament House to present the Union Budget in the years.
Credit: PTI Photo
New Delhi: With a 1:32 hour speech, Nirmala Sitharaman equalled a Parliamentary milestone on Tuesday when she presented her seventh consecutive Union Budget, a feat previously achieved only by C D Deshmukh 68 years ago.
Both Deshmukh, who presented budgets between 1951 and 1956, and Nirmala had presented six full budgets and an interim budget each. Two of Deshmukh’s budgets were before the constitution of the first Lok Sabha in 1952.
If one takes consecutive full budgets, Nirmala shares the record with former Prime Minister Morarji Desai, who presented six consecutive budgets as Finance Minister in Congress governments.
Nirmala, the second woman to present a budget after Prime Minister Indira Gandhi in 1971 who held the Finance portfolio and the first full time Finance Minister, also holds the record for the longest budget speech when she spoke for 2:40 hours on February 1, 2020. At the same time, she had then cut short her speech with two pages still remaining.
Her shortest speech at 56 minutes was on February 1 this year when she presented the interim budget. Incidentally, Hirubhai Mulljibhai Patel's interim Budget speech in 1977 is so far the shortest at just 800 words.
Nirmala's first budget speech on July 5, 2019 was 2:17 hours long while in 2021, she took 1:50 hours and in 2022, it was 1:32 hours. The year 2023 saw a 1:27 hour speech.
If one takes the word length, Nirmala’s first speech had 10,965 words followed by 13,349 words, 10,594 words, 9,064 words, 8,167 words and 5,271 words.
If she continues to be Finance Minister till at least 2028 March, she will be the record holder for presenting the budget for 11 times. At present, Morarji holds the record at 10 followed by P Chidambaram (9) and Pranab Mukherjee (8) along with Deshmukh and Nirmala (7 each). Manmohan Singh, Yashwant Sinha, Chidambaram, Mukherjee and Arun Jaitley have presented five consecutive budgets.
Desai presented his first budget on February 28, 1959, and presented full budgets in the following two years before presenting an interim one in the election year 1962 followed by two full budgets. After a gap of four years, he presented another interim budget in 1967, followed by three full budgets in 1967, 1968, and 1969.
Union Budget 2024 LIVE | Making a record for any Finance Minister, Nirmala Sitharaman will be presenting her 7th Union Budget on July 23, 2024 under the Modi 3.0 government. While inflation has burnt a hole in the pockets of 'aam janata', will this Budget spell relief for Indians? Track the latest coverage, live news, in-depth opinions, and analysis only on Deccan Herald. Also follow us on WhatsApp, LinkedIn, X, Facebook, YouTube, and Instagram.