Shouts and smiles, as Mamata reads her budget speech

Combative, hectoring and ploughing on regardless of the commotion around her, Railway Minister Mamata Banerjee was at her feisty best today, when she presented the railway budget for a marathon two hours.

Combative, hectoring and ploughing on regardless of the commotion around her, Railway Minister Mamata Banerjee was at her feisty best Wednesday when she presented the railway budget for a marathon two hours.

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Dressed in a white and green sari and her trademark rubber slippers, Banerjee presented her second budget speech in the Lok Sabha with a constant din from the opposition that attacked her for being pro-West Bengal.

But she was not one to be deterred. "Where is Cuttack?" she shouted at opposition MPs. At various other points in the speech, during which her Bengali pronunciation led to some laughter, she sternly asked MPs to quieten down.

While Speaker Meira Kumar asked the MPs to sit down and let Banerjee finish her presentation, the minister did her bit by frequently interrupting her speech to tell them to let her complete the job.

"I am also a human," a frustrated Banerjee said at one point. And carried on gamely, not even stopping for a sip of water.