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'Hope it's short...': Congress MP's jab at Sitharaman over Union Budget 2023
Union finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman is presenting her fifth straight budget as union finance minister on Wednesday.
Congress MP Karti Chidambaram on Wednesday took a jibe at union finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman over the duration of her Budget speech. “Hope it's short”, he wrote on Twitter shortly before she was to present the document and tagged the finance minister.
Sitharaman is presenting her fifth straight budget as union finance minister on Wednesday. This will be the last full-fledged budget of the second term of the Narendra Modi government.
In 2020, Sitharaman delivered the longest Budget speech that lasted for 2 hours and 42 minutes - which had a total of 13,275 words. The minister had to cut short her speech with two pages remaining as she felt unwell after speaking continuously. In 2019, she gave the second longest speech which went on for 2 hours and 17 minutes.
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In 2021, the finance minister addressed for 1 hour and 40 minutes - this was the first time the Budget was presented in a paperless format. Last year, she delivered her speech for nearly 92 minutes, her shortest so far.
Before Sitharaman, the last longest Budget speech was given by Jaswant Singh in 2003 - who spoke for 2 hours and 15 minutes. Meanwhile, the shortest speech was delivered by former finance minister Hirubhai Mulljibhai Patel in 1977.
