Sitharaman delivers marathon Budget speech, Speaker compliments her

Nirmala Sitharaman, the country's first full-time woman finance minister, Friday delivered one of the longest Budget speeches which was peppered with Urdu, Hindi and Tamil couplets. All through her 2 hours 17 minutes long maiden budget presentation, Sitharaman did not pause to have a sip of water.

The budget proposals were welcomed with frequent thumping of desks by the treasury benches with Prime Minister Narendra Modi too joining the members. Speaker Om Birla also lauded Sitharaman for her presentation of the budget as the country's first full-time woman finance minister.

As the finance minister walked into Lok Sabha just before 10:55 am and took her seat, several women MPs walked up to her, wishing her good luck before the speech. After the pleasantries, a confident Sitharaman took her seat and adjusted the mike.

She also greeted her parents Savitri and Narayanan Sitharaman and her journalist daughter Vangmayi Parkala, who were sitting in the gallery. A native of Tamil Nadu, Sitharaman received the longest applause when she made certain announcements on rural artisans in Hindi.

Her speech was laced with Hindi, Urdu, Sanskrit and even Tamil verses. In fact, she started out with an Urdu couplet from poet Manzoor Hashmi. "Yakeen ho to koi rasta nikalta hai, hawa ki oat bhi le kar chirag jalta hai," she said.

The couplet means that if you are determined, you can find a way notwithstanding the adversities. She also read out a line from Pura Nanooru, a Tamil Sangam Era work by Pisirandaiyaar.

Her recitation won praise by most of the MPs from Tamil Nadu, including DMK's A Raja and Dayanidhi Maran. Sitharamana also cited Chanakyaneeti and quoted Swami Vivekananda.

There was hardly any thumping of desk, both from the treasury as well as the opposition side, when Sitharaman announced the move to levy 2 percent TDS on cash withdrawal exceeding Rs 1 crore in a year from a bank account. The move, Sitharaman said, was to discourage the practice of making business payments in cash.

While the treasury benches were full, several seats in the opposition remained vacant. The significant absentees included the father-son duo of Mulayam and Akhilesh Singh Yadav. The gallery reserved for Rajya Sabha was almost full.

Among those present from the Upper House in the gallery were D Raja, Kumar Ketkar, Narendra Jadhav, K Alphons, Majeed Memon and Swapan Dasgupta. A few foreign dignitaries were seen in the visitors' gallery.

Congress leader Rahul Gandhi, who arrived in the House a couple of minutes after Sitharaman started her speech, was seen frequently checking his phone. His mother and UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi was sitting next to him in the front row and left a few minutes before the budget speech concluded.

Sonia left behind her small red purse with embroidery work, which was picked by Rahul after the House was adjourned. The husband-wife duo of Union minister Harsimrat Kaur Badal and Shiromani Akali Dal chief Sukhbir Singh Badal, Maneka Gandhi and her son Varun Gandhi, actress and Mathura MP Hema Malini and her stepson Sunny Deol were among the members present in the House.

LJP leader and Union Minister Ram Vilas Paswan and his son Chirag were also present. Karti Chidambaram, Nakulnath and Gaurav Gogoi, sons of senior Congress leaders P Chidambaram, Kamal Nath and Tarun Gogoi respectively, were seen sitting together in the House.

(This story has not been edited by Devdiscourse staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)