‘Something out of ordinary’: Nirmala Sitharaman interacts with college students who witnessed Parliament’s Budget session live

Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, on Sunday (February 1, 2026), interacted with 30 university students who witnessed the session live in Parliament from the Lok Sabha gallery during the presentation of the Union Budget 2026-27.

She described the interaction as a departure from the usual practice of giving interviews to newspapers and television studios after the Budget presentation. Speaking at the Youth Dialogue on Budget 2026, Ms. Sitharaman said the idea came from her team, who suggested taking a different approach this time.

“This time my team thought of doing something out of the ordinary, saying, ‘You go after presenting the budget to each one of the studios or each one of the newspapers and give them inter…’” she said.

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She shared that they devised the idea of inviting college students to Parliament, asking the attendees to share their experience.

“Therefore, they thought that they would get in touch with universities and come with a group of students with whom they can do this interaction, and that’s how this has worked out… I would certainly like to know from you what the experience of sitting in the parliament and listening to a budget was like,” she said.

Ms. Sitharaman also spoke about the efforts that are being made to ensure a “better India” for students while drawing a contrast with the India she grew up in.

“Every now and then, I can tell you what the country I was born in is, what the country I was brought up in is, and what this country is where I am living now. But that India, I wouldn’t want any of you all to remember. That’s not the India we want anymore in the future for anybody. We want a better India,” Ms. Sitharaman said.

Clarifying that she does not think that everything in the past can be perceived as negative, the Finance Minister added, “I’m not saying everything which happened in the past is bad, but because of the way in which economies grew after coming out of imperialism, our pace of growth, our type of growth, and our type of governance made it delayed. Everything was delayed.”