New Delhi: Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla passed the Motion of Thanks on the President’s Address on Thursday amid constant sloganeering by the Opposition MPs.
After a one-hour adjournment, the House reconvened at 12 p.m. amid Opposition protests. After the motion was passed, the Lok Sabha was again adjourned till 2 p.m.
With constant sloganeering in the background, the proceedings saw a heated exchange this week as the Opposition members repeatedly clashed with the Treasury Benches over the denial of Lok Sabha Leader of Opposition (LoP) Rahul Gandhi’s speech, citing excerpts from an article based on unpublished memoirs of former Army Chief General M.M. Naravane.
He further claimed that the book contained references to Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Defence Minister Rajnath Singh.
The claims triggered strong protests from the Treasury Benches, with members demanding that LoP Gandhi adhere to parliamentary rules and present only “authentic sources” inside the House.
The issue quickly snowballed into a political confrontation between the ruling BJP and the Opposition.
Earlier on Wednesday, Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s address in Parliament, slated for 5 p.m., was postponed, as the Lok Sabha was adjourned till Thursday morning, over continued uproar and vociferous sloganeering from the Opposition members.
As the Lok Sabha reconvened at 5 p.m. on Wednesday to discuss the Motion of Thanks to the President’s Address, the House plunged into chaos with Opposition members erupting in protest over the General M.M. Naravane memoirs issue.
Sandhya Ray, officiating as the House Chairman, made an appeal to the lawmakers to stay seated and not disrupt the proceedings, but her appeals went unheeded.
Members from the Opposition Benches assembled in the Well of the House and kept flashing paper pamphlets.
The Lower House has remained plagued by repeated disruptions for the last two days, with the Union government and Opposition engaging in a fierce stand-off over raking up of India-China border skirmishes that took place during August 2020.
Rahul Gandhi, leading the Congress’ charge, raised the issue of Chinese aggression during the Galwan stand-off while citing ‘uncomfortable facts’ from the memoirs of General Naravane, where he is understood to have written about ‘political indecision’ over the response mechanism to the then Chinese misadventures.
(IANS)
