A video of Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman speaking to a journalist at a press conference is making rounds 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, with the minister appearing arrogant in her discussion with the journalist. This fact-checking article aims to verify the accuracy of this claim.
Claim: A video of Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman behaving arrogantly with a journalist during a press conference realted to the budget.
Fact: The video is from a press conference in 2023, after the budget announcement for that year. Hence, the claim made in the post is False.
We began our fact-checking process by performing a keyword search for the video under scrutiny. This led us to a similar video posted in February 2023 on the YouTube channel ‘BrutIndia.’ Interestingly, the logo of ‘Brut’ is also visible on the viral video under examination, suggesting they are indeed the same footage.
The video found on ‘Brut’ is titled ‘This was FM’s reply when a journalist tried to convey the Opposition’s view on Budget.’ Given that this video was uploaded in 2023, it became clear that the contentious video is not recent but from a press conference held after the 2023 budget announcement.
Several mainstream media outlets have also reported (here, here, and here) this incident in 2023. You can see the full video of the press conference where this incident occurred here on the official YouTube channel of PIB India. The portion in the viral video can be seen from here.
To sum up, the video of Nirmala Sitharaman speaking at a budget-related press conference being circulated on social media is not recent but from 2023.
