Budget 2024: Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman's 7th speech marks 71 rounds of applause

Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Tuesday presented her seventh consecutive budget, triggering 71 rounds of applause by members of the government in her 83-minute speech, reported TOI.

Draped in a Mangalagiri sari with a purple-golden border, Sitharaman read from a tablet PC she brought in a traditional red 'bahi-khata' pouch as she has done since she ditched the colonial-style leather briefcase in 2019.

Sitharaman's almost 1.5-hour speech was met with much enthusiasm from the treasury benches. As she delivered Budget 2024 with confidence, perhaps stemming from Prime Minister Narendra Modi's continued trust in her.


Moreover, despite the jeers from the opposition benches, the finance minister remained undeterred, surely having been buoyed by the treasury benches' 71 rounds of cheers.

Opposition 'boos' budget

Opposition agitation sounded particularly aggressive 'boos' as Sitharaman read the special financial assistance allotted to Bihar and Andhra Pradesh, BJP allies Nitish Kumar and Chandrababu Naidu's states, respectively. Amid chants of ‘sarkar ko bachane wala budget’ and ‘sarkar bachao' from the opposition benches, Sitharaman read out the slew of special measures for the two states.

Additionally, Trinamool member Saugata Ray and DMK’s Dayanidhi Maran received warnings from Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla as a result of their frequent comments through the presentation.

Among other states that got some special attention were Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand, having been ravaged by deadly floods and landslides in the past year. Though Congress and DMK leaders from Tamil Nadu and Kerala raised demands of flood-assistance funds for their own flood-hit states, the opposition never threatened to escalate the matter enough to raise an all opposition effort due to their own stakes in Bihar and Uttarakhand.

In a show of moral support, finance minister's daughter Vangmayi Parakala and other relatives which included Vidya Lakshminarayan were seen in the viewers' gallery.

(With inputs from TOI)