FM Nirmala Sitharaman cuts short Budget speech after feeling unwell
New Delhi, February 1
Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Saturday cut short her Budget speech as she felt unwell after speaking for a record 160 minutes in Lok Sabha.
Sitharaman had only two pages of her Budget speech unread when she appeared uneasy and was seen wiping sweat from her forehead.
She was offered candies by her ministerial colleagues, but that did not help, and she opted to discontinue the speech asking Speaker Om Birla to consider the remaining part of her speech as read.
Also read: Govt introduces five tax slabs with lower rates for those foregoing exemptions; raises customs duty
This was the longest Budget speech by any finance minister.
Also read: Manmohan Singh calls Nirmala Sitharaman’s Budget speech ‘too long to absorb’
She broke her own record of a 2-hour-17-minute-long maiden Budget speech in July 2019. PTI