Arun Jaitley talks up a record: FM with second-longest budget speeches

Budget speeches have grown longer as the republic has grown older.

Budget speeches have grown longer as the republic has grown older. Arun Jaitley has already emerged as the Union finance minister with the second-longest budget speeches on average. The average number of paragraphs in his speeches is 190 after his fourth budget appearance on Wednesday. This is higher than all of India’s prior finance ministers’ speeches, except one. President Pranab Mukherjee, as the finance minister, had an average of 202 paragraphs for his budget speeches.

Finance Minister Arun Jaitley (C) leaves his office to table the budget in Parliament in New Delhi on February 1. (AFP)

Third on the list is P. Chidambaram, with an average of 173 paragraphs. Others among the top 10 include Yashwant Sinha, Manmohan Singh, Y.B. Chavan and Morarji R. Desai.

Pranab Mukherjee’s average was helped by the 220 paragraphs seen in 2012, which was also his last budget speech. Jaitley has at least one budget to go if he wants to catch up. He certainly has the ability to do so. His longest speech was 253 paragraphs in 2014.u

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