Amid the Introduction of the Interim Budget 2024, a video of Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman is making rounds on social media platforms showing her conversation with a journalist about the Budget. In the video, the Journalist can be heard saying: “Mam, they (Opposition Leaders) said not good enough”, most of the opposition parties for the Budget. Responding to the Journalist’s question, the Finance Minister said: Not Good Enough, For what reasons were they saying? Further, the Journalist says: “They said nothing for the middle class. On this, the FM Sitharaman said: “What!”.

Users on social media platforms are fiercely sharing this video and claiming it to be of recent Interim budget 2024.

Sharing this video on X(Twitter), a user named Amock wrote: ” Nirmala Sitharaman held a press conference & a journalist asked a question about the budget. She went arrogant. Look at blood boiling expressions.”. #Budget 2024

The archive version can be seen here

Furthermore, several users shared this video on X(Twitter) and made similar claims.

Fact-Check

To determine the reality of the above viral video, the DFRAC team converted this video into some keyframes and reverse-searched it on Google. Meanwhile, we found the same video on Brut India’s official YouTube channel with the description: “This was FM’s reply when a journalist tried to convey the Opposition’s view on Budget“. Moreover, the video was posted a year ago.

Upon investigating Further, we also found a media report published by Hindustan Times on Feb 1, 2023. According to this report, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Wednesday slammed reports that the Union Budget for 2023-24 was ‘not good enough’ and that it offered little in terms of support for the middle class. Responding to a reporter’s question on opposition leaders’ criticism, the finance minister expressed utter disbelief and went: “What?”. An amused finance minister then quickly moved on from the question.

Conclusion

It is clear from DFRAC’s Fact-Check that the viral video of FM Nirmala Sitharaman claiming to be of a recent Interim Budget 2024 is misleading since the video is related to the previous year’s Budget, not to the recent Interim Budget.

Hence, the claim of social media users is false.

Analysis: Misleading