Sitharaman delivers longest Budget speech; peppers it with Kashmiri verse, populist measures
New Delhi: A Kashmiri verse, quotes from Tamil poets and references to Saraswati-Sindhu civilisation dotted Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman's 160-minute long marathon Budget speech on Saturday which was cut short at the fag end after she felt unwell.
As the minister, clad in a bright yellow sari with a light green border, delivered the longest Union Budget speech ever, some of her remarks, including regarding Beti Bachao Beti Padao programme, were met with protests from the Opposition benches.
Her first Budget speech, in July 2019, went on for around 137 minutes.
Apart from a Kashmiri verse, which she rendered in both Kashmiri and Hindi, the minister also quoted poets Thiruvalluvar and Kalidasa, among others.
Many of the announcements including reduction in personal income tax rates were welcomed with thumping of desks by treasury benches. Prime Minister Narendra Modi too joined the members in the applause.
Aspirational India, economic development for all and caring society were the prominent themes around which the Budget has been woven, she said.
After around 150 minutes, Sitharam appeared tired and sipped water at least thrice before cutting short her speech.
In between when a staff member went to get a glass of water, Sitharaman took a candy that was offered by Union Minister Nitin Gadkari.
Ministerial colleague Harsimrat Kaur Badal also came to the finance minister's place and offered a candy.
Union ministers Rajnath Singh and Amit Shah were also seen talking to her. Unable to continue, she told the Speaker to consider the rest of the speech as laid and sat in her seat.
Soon after the proceedings were adjourned, Prime Minister Narendra Modi walked up to her and greeted her.
Several ministers, including Piyush Goyal and Smriti Irani, and various members, including from the Congress, enquired Sitharaman about her health.
Before leaving the House, Sitharaman waved at her family members who were standing in the gallery. Her daughter Vangmayi Parkala and three other family members were in the House for the speech.
Congress President Sonia Gandhi and Samajwadi Party patriach Mulayam Singh Yadav were among those conspicuous by their absence in the House.
Rajya Sabha Deputy Chairman Harvansh Narayan Singh, and many other Upper House members, including Alphons Kannanthanam and Vaiko, were sitting in the gallery.
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Two injuries, one DNF, a DQ as India end messy World Relays campaign
Gaborone (Botswana) (PTI): Amoj Jacob and Ragul Kumar got injured during the men's 4x400m and 4x100 races respectively as India ended their World Athletics Relays campaign in disappointment on the second day of competitions here on Sunday.
The Indian camp had high hopes of making the 2027 World Championships in the men's 4x400m relay but the team did not finish (DNF) the race as Jacob suffered cramps and pulled out of the race after taking the baton from the first leg runner Dharamveer Choudhary. Rajesh Ramesh and Vishal TK were to run in the third and fourth legs.
Those teams which could not qualify for the 2027 Beijing World Championships by reaching the final round of each of the six relay events on Saturday were given another chance in the second qualification round on Sunday.
The top two teams in each of the two heats (in all six relay events) booked the Beijing ticket on Sunday.
India will now have to try and qualify for the World Championships through the Top Lists of the World Athletics, which is a long and tedious process.
In the men's 4x100m race, third leg runner Ragul Kumar fell down the track after failing to hand over the baton inside the exchange zone to fourth leg runner Gurindervir Singh, which clearly showed the lack of coordination among the runners.
Harsh Santosh Raut and Animesh Kujur ran the first two legs.
The Indian quartet was disqualified and Kumar was seen being taken away from the Field of Play with the help of the volunteers.
It was a comedy of errors in the case of the women's 4x100m race, which saw the baton being dropped during an exchange between first leg runner Tamanna and second runner Nithya Gandhe, though the Indians finished the race in 53.09 seconds.
Gandhe started running quite a distance, but after realising that the baton was not in her hand, she turned and ran back to pick it up.
The only silver-lining for the Indian contingent was the national record time in the mixed 4x100m relay race, though the quartet of Ragul Kumar, Nithya Gandhe, Animesh Kujur and Sneha SS finished sixth in heat number two with a time of 41.35 seconds, bettering the previous national mark of 42.30 seconds set in March in Chandigarh.
The mixed 4x400m relay quartet of Theerthesh P Shetty, Kumari Saloni, Nihal William and Rashdeep Kaur ended at fifth in heat number one with a time of 3 minutes and 19.40 seconds.
On Saturday, all the five Indian relay teams had failed to make it to the respective final rounds and thus missed out on the 2027 World Championships berths.
