The importance of being Nirmala Sitharaman did not lie only in itself as a United States Minister, or that she was the first woman to hold the prestigious position, full time. Also did not lie to him as the most senior female cabinet minister in Narendra Modi’s government.
It lies in the fact that he is the only Minister of Seniority Persat in such a way as to attend a press conference, Telecast lives on all channels, at least once a year, and allows himself questioned with any journalist with journalists.
The Prime Minister Modi did not do it, Minister of Hill Union Amit Shah did not do it. Other union ministers such as Rajnath Singh, Piyush Goyal and Irani Smriti, to mention some, can hold a media briefing but it is short and not always available to the public.
Many ministers spoke to reporters who accompanied them on official or political tours but it was informal – and once again, we public could not listen.
PM and his minister gave interviews to individual journalists or media homes, but it was not the same as facing the auditorium full of media professionals, many of which did ask difficult questions.
In the line of fire
Of course, he is not the first and he will be the last to do this. It is traditional for the Minister of Finance to hold a live press conference, hours after giving uni budget speeches in parliament – at 100 minutes, this is the shortest the shortest sitharaman. They also gave DD News interviews so, Sitharaman was just following the tradition, as he had done for the past four years.
However, what makes it very special, though and something we all look forward to, is that it might be the only chance in the 365 days we get to watch a senior BJP minister at the line of fire media.
And became Nirmala Sitharaman, the Minister of Finance shot from the hips and lips, giving back better than he got, all in the attitude of his customary prisoners.
He delivered his budget speech by becoming gravity – it did not raise a lot of applause but also did not provoke too much interference or ‘Hais’ from the opposition bench.