Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Saturday cut short her Budget speech in Lok Sabha as she felt unwell after speaking for a record 160 minutes.
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.
This was the longest Budget speech by any finance minister.
Sitharaman, 60, broke her own record of a 2-hour-17- minute-long maiden Budget speech in July 2019.
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This was the second budget for Sitharaman, who became the second woman finance minister after Indira Gandhi to do so in the history of independent India. This was also the first budget of the second term of the Narendra Modi government.
Like last year, Sitharaman opted for a traditional 'bahi-khata' to carry budget documents. Dressed in a crisp yellow silk saree, the minister carried the documents wrapped in a red silk cloth, adorned with the Indian emblem in golden.
In the speech, Nirmala Sitharaman said that aspirational India, economic development and a caring society for all are the three prominent themes of the Union Budget 2020-21.
(With input from agencies)
