PM Narendra Modi's speech in Lok Sabha was not the longest: List of other recent long speeches

Budget speeches are usually the longest in Parliament.

PM Modi speaking in Lok Sabha on Wednesday. (Photo: PTI)

NEW DELHI: Prime Minister Narendra's Modi's speech in Lok Sabha on Wednesday was unusually long. It lasted 1 hour and 31 minutes. While the longest speeches in the history of the Parliament of India are usually Budget speeches, there have been occasions when leaders have taken their sweet time to make all the points they wanted to make.

Here is a quick-fire list of long speeches in Parliament:

* Atal Bihari Vajpayee's speech in Lok Sabha during the confidence motion in Parliament on May 27, 1996, after his 13-day government. This speech was more than onme-and-half hours long.
* External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj's speech in Rajya Sabha on August 3, 2017, on India's relations with Pakistan, China and USA lasted more than 50 mins. The speech had come at the height of the Doklam Standoff between Indian and Chinese troops, after the Chinese encroached upon Bhutanese territory.
* Senior Congress leader and Leader of Opposition in Rajya Sabha Ghulam Nabi Azad's speech in Rajya Sabha thanking President Ram Nath Kovind for his first joint address of Parliament at the beginning of the Budget Session on February 5, 2018, stretched past the one-hour mark. 
* BJP president Amit Shah's first speech as an MP lasted 1 hour and 20 minutes. His Rajya Sabha debut on February 5 was a motion of thanks to the President for the joint address.
* Senior Congress leader and Leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha Mallikarjun Kharge's speech in Lok Sabha on Constitution Day - November 26, 2015 - lasted over 40 minutes. 
* Sushma Swaraj's speech on the No Confidence Motion in Lok Sabha on August 19, 2003 was about 1 hour and 45 minutes long. She was a part of the Atal Bihari Vajpayee-led NDA government at the time.
* Two earlier speeches by PM Narendra Modi - in February 2017 and February 2016 - both lasted well over an hour. Both these speeches, like his outing on Wednesday, were motions of thanks to the joint address by then President Pranab Mukherjee.