New Delhi, July 23: As soon as she started her budget speech in Parliament, Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman equaled the record of former Prime Minister Morarji Desai and former Union Minister P Chidambaram in presenting the budget. Desai and Chidambaram have presented the budget seven times while being the Finance Minister.
In this way, by presenting the budget today, Nirmala Sitharaman has also become the Finance Minister to present the budget for the seventh time. The biggest thing is that in the history of the country, no woman has got the opportunity to present the budget so many times.
Before this, former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi presented the budget of 1970-71 while handling the additional responsibility of Finance Minister in 1970. Since the independence of the country, 30 Finance Ministers have presented the budget in Parliament so far. Some of these finance ministers had a short tenure, while some have carried out this responsibility for a long time.
The record of working for the longest time as a finance minister is in the name of P Chidambaram, who has worked as a finance minister for a total of 8 years and 41 days in different governments. During this time, he got the opportunity to present the budget seven times.
In terms of the tenure of the finance minister, the second place is held by former Prime Minister Morarji Desai, who held the responsibility of the finance minister from 1958 to 1962 and then from 1967 to 1969. Apart from this, Morarji Desai also held the additional charge of the finance minister for two days in 1977 and for 12 days in 1979. All together, Morarji Desai was the finance minister of the country for a total of 7 years and 338 days. During this time, he presented the budget in the Lok Sabha a total of 7 times.
Nirmala Sitharaman comes third in terms of tenure as Finance Minister, who has been handling the responsibility of Finance Minister for 5 years and 52 days. In this period, she presented the budget for the seventh time today. This is her second budget as Finance Minister this year. Earlier in February, she had presented the interim budget. Before assuming the responsibility of the post of Finance Minister, Nirmala Sitharaman has also handled the responsibility of Minister of State for Finance for 166 days between 27 May 2014 and 9 November 2014.
Nirmala Sitharaman has worked for the longest time as a female Finance Minister. Before this, former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi had handled the additional responsibility of Finance Minister for 346 days between 16 July 1969 and 27 June 1970. The work of presenting the budget is usually done by the Finance Minister. But after independence, there have been many such occasions when the then Prime Minister has presented the budget in the Lok Sabha while handling the additional responsibility of Finance Minister.
The first name among those who presented the country’s budget while being the Prime Minister is that of former Prime Minister Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru, who presented the budget himself in the Lok Sabha in 1958 after the then Finance Minister TT Krishnamachari suddenly resigned. Apart from this, the names of Indira Gandhi, Morarji Desai, Rajiv Gandhi and Manmohan Singh are also included among those leaders who took the responsibility of the country’s Prime Minister and also presented the budget.
