Old video of Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman reacting to budget criticism shared as recent.

The viral video is not recent; it was taken in 2023 during the press conference held after the presentation of the budget for FY 2023–2024.

On 1February, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman presented Union Budget of 2024 in Parliament. This was an interim budget as it came just ahead of the Lok Sabha Elections. This was Nirmala Sitharaman’s sixth Union Budget. The full-fledged budget will be presented by the new government that comes to power after the elections.

In this context, a video of Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman speaking to a journalist at a press conference is going viral on social media. It is accompanied by a description suggesting it’s a recent incident that occurred during a press conference after the introduction of the budget for the financial year 2024-25. The video shows a journalist asking Sitharaman for her reaction on the opposition calling the budget not good enough.

The caption of the viral post states, “Nirmala Sitharaman held a press conference & a journalist asked a question about budget. She went arrogant. Look at blood boiling expressions. A neutral media would ripped this govt apart into pieces for this. #Budget2024”

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Fact Check- 

When we looked closely at the video, we noticed the logo of media company Brut is visible on the video. Keeping this in mind,we used relevant keywords to look for this video. This led us to Brut India’s verified YouTube channel, where the same video was uploaded on 1 February 2023. It was titled ‘This was FM’s reply when a journalist tried to convey the Opposition’s view on Budget’.

Similar report was published by the Hindustan Times on 1February 2023 also. So it became clear that the viral video is not recent but from a press conference held after the 2023 budget announcement. 

In further search, we found the full video of the press conference held after the announcement of the Union Budget for the financial year 2023-2024 was uploaded on the Press Information Bureau’s (PIB) official YouTube channel. Upon hearing, we found the viral video could be heard from the timestamp of 42:52 minutes. 

Thus, the social media surfacing video of Nirmala Sitharaman addressing a news conference about the budget is from 2023, not recent.

Conclusion- 

Fact Crescendo found the claim made along with the viral video to be Misleading. The viral video is not recent; it was taken in 2023 during the press conference held after the presentation of the budget for FY 2023–2024.