<p id="thickbox_headline">In a first such instance, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman had to cut short the longest ever budget speech that left her exhausted with members pleading her to stop.</p>.<p>Sitharaman broke her own record of making the longest budget speech with Saturday's treatise on the economy clocking two hours and forty one minutes, a shade better that the two hours and seventeen minute speech she delivered in July last year.</p>.<p>In terms of wordage, her speech was made up of 13,285 words, as against the 11,000-word oration during her maiden budget in July last year.</p>.<p>The longer duration could be attributed to her repeating certain portions of the speech for greater emphasis, an effort that tested the patience of certain members.</p>.<p>"It is such a long budget, I was unable to absorb it," former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh told reporters in Parliament.</p>.<p>Dressed in a yellow saree, Sitharaman entered the Lok Sabha carrying the budget papers in a 'bahi-khata' instead of a briefcase and set off presenting the “bouquet of flowers” – as she chose to describe the themes of the budget – Aspirational India, Economic Development and Caring India.</p>.<p>Sitharaman's speech was peppered with quotes from Kashmiri poet Dinanath Kaul, Tamil saint poets Avvaiyar and Thiruvalluvar, and Kalidasa's treatise 'Raghuvamsa' to embellish the finer aspects of the budget.</p>.<p>Lok Sabha members listened to the speech by-and-large in silence, but did not hesitate to interrupt when she made a reference to Jammu and Kashmir and security – reminding the government that Lok Sabha member from Srinagar Farooq Abdullah was still in detention for no fault of his.</p>.<p>Trinamool member Saugata Roy also referred to the general disinterest about the Union Budget among the Treasury benches pointing out that only ministers concerned were applauding mentions of their respective departments in the finance minister's speech, which she continued without a pause even to sip from a glass of water.</p>.<p>However, signs of exhaustion began showing two and a half hours into the speech when Sitharaman was visibly uneasy and gulped water from a glass and wiped her spectacles. A little while later, she took sips of water, prompting Defence Minister Rajnath Singh to advise her to sit down and complete her speech.</p>.<p>Transport Minister Nitin Gadkari was seen passing her a sugar candy, anticipating that her sugar levels had dropped while Food Processing Minister Harsimrat Singh Badal and Trinamool leader Kakoli Ghosh Dastidar rushed to inquire her well being.</p>.<p>“Only two pages are remaining,” Sitharaman was heard telling Rajnath, but soon after she requested Speaker Om Birla to allow her to lay the remaining portion of her speech on the table of the House.</p>
<p id="thickbox_headline">In a first such instance, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman had to cut short the longest ever budget speech that left her exhausted with members pleading her to stop.</p>.<p>Sitharaman broke her own record of making the longest budget speech with Saturday's treatise on the economy clocking two hours and forty one minutes, a shade better that the two hours and seventeen minute speech she delivered in July last year.</p>.<p>In terms of wordage, her speech was made up of 13,285 words, as against the 11,000-word oration during her maiden budget in July last year.</p>.<p>The longer duration could be attributed to her repeating certain portions of the speech for greater emphasis, an effort that tested the patience of certain members.</p>.<p>"It is such a long budget, I was unable to absorb it," former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh told reporters in Parliament.</p>.<p>Dressed in a yellow saree, Sitharaman entered the Lok Sabha carrying the budget papers in a 'bahi-khata' instead of a briefcase and set off presenting the “bouquet of flowers” – as she chose to describe the themes of the budget – Aspirational India, Economic Development and Caring India.</p>.<p>Sitharaman's speech was peppered with quotes from Kashmiri poet Dinanath Kaul, Tamil saint poets Avvaiyar and Thiruvalluvar, and Kalidasa's treatise 'Raghuvamsa' to embellish the finer aspects of the budget.</p>.<p>Lok Sabha members listened to the speech by-and-large in silence, but did not hesitate to interrupt when she made a reference to Jammu and Kashmir and security – reminding the government that Lok Sabha member from Srinagar Farooq Abdullah was still in detention for no fault of his.</p>.<p>Trinamool member Saugata Roy also referred to the general disinterest about the Union Budget among the Treasury benches pointing out that only ministers concerned were applauding mentions of their respective departments in the finance minister's speech, which she continued without a pause even to sip from a glass of water.</p>.<p>However, signs of exhaustion began showing two and a half hours into the speech when Sitharaman was visibly uneasy and gulped water from a glass and wiped her spectacles. A little while later, she took sips of water, prompting Defence Minister Rajnath Singh to advise her to sit down and complete her speech.</p>.<p>Transport Minister Nitin Gadkari was seen passing her a sugar candy, anticipating that her sugar levels had dropped while Food Processing Minister Harsimrat Singh Badal and Trinamool leader Kakoli Ghosh Dastidar rushed to inquire her well being.</p>.<p>“Only two pages are remaining,” Sitharaman was heard telling Rajnath, but soon after she requested Speaker Om Birla to allow her to lay the remaining portion of her speech on the table of the House.</p>
