Nirmala Sitharaman set for fifth Budget speech; Will it be massive or minimalistic?

As Nirmala Sitharaman gets up to present the Union Budget on Wednesday, many in Parliament, newsrooms, offices and homes will quickly make a note of the time as they start listening intently to the layout of India's annual financial plan. This is because Sitharaman, the Union Finance Minister, has a reputation of breaking records in her budget speeches. The 63-year-old Rajya Sabha MP about to present her fifth Union Budget has the record for the longest budget speech in history.    

Longest budget speech 

On February 1, 2020, Nirmala Sithramanan started her budget speech and went on to speak for a straight 162 minutes. Her speech had 13,275 words. 

Sitharaman spoke for 2 hours 42 minutes at a stretch while presenting the Union Budget 2020 making a record for the longest Budget speech in Indian history.

Sitharaman had intended to speak longer, but had to cut her speech short as she felt unwell.  

A short follow-up

In 2022, Nirmala Sitharaman presented her shortest-ever budget speech, lasting barely 90 minutes. In 2019, at Sithraman's maiden Budget speech, she spoke for two hours and 17 minutes, making the record for the longest budget speech at the time. Until then, the longest budget speech was the one made by Jaswant Singh, who spoke for 2 hours and 15 minutes in 2003.    

Longest budget in terms of text

While Nirmala Sitharaman holds the record for the longest Budget speech, Manmohan Singh gave the longest budget speech when in terms of text. Singh holds the record for the longest speech in terms of text after giving a speech of 18,650 words in 1991.

Arun Jaitley in 2018 gave a budget speech was 18,604 words long. 

Shortest budget speech

The record for the shortest budget speech in Parliament lies with Hirubhai Muljibhai Patel. In 1977, Patel presented the shortest Budget ever, of just 800 words. However, he was only presenting an interim budget.