Ministers caught sleeping during Nirmala Sitharaman's speech in parliament

New Delhi: Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman took on the Opposition in a fiery speech in the Parliament on Wednesday. She agreed to the fact that there is a slowdown in the country, but there is no recession, she said. Her spirited speech failed to catch the attention of many ministers and MPs. They were found dozing off right behind her as she was speaking in the parliament.

Union minister for skill development, Mahendra Nath Pandey was caught on camera snoozing peacefully till someone comes from the back and wakes him up. The video of the minister has gone viral online. Minister Anurag Thakur, the Finance Minister's deputy was caught looking surprised at his benchmate.

Nirmala Sitharaman spoke defensively about the economic slowdown in India and said that the government is taking the necessary steps to improve the situation at hand. She predicted that though the economy has slowed down, India will "never slip into recession."

Sitharaman stated that the government's measures have already begun to show success, especially in the automobile industry. Her colleagues in the parliament, however, happily snoozed away while she was speaking fervently.

Several MPs and ministers were found sleeping during Sitharaman's speech in the Rajya Sabha. In the videos that have surfaced online and have gone viral, two ministers are seen slumping into a nap while minister Anurag Thakur was trying to wake them up. The leaked videos have given way to numerous jokes and memes on social media.

Last week, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) lowered its GDP growth estimate for India in 2019 to 6.1% The earlier projection for India was at 7.3%.While the economic downturn is global, the IMF projected that 90% of the world economy will grow at a lower rate in 2019 than in the previous year.