In what may be considered as the first instance since 2004, the Lok Sabha on Thursday passed the Motion of Thanks to the President’s Address through a voice vote, with Prime Minister Narendra Modi not speaking during the debate in the House.
The lower house passed the Motion of Thanks amid continued disruptions and Opposition protests, with the government deciding to move the motion without a reply from the Prime Minister in the Lower House. Parliamentary affairs officials said the Prime Minister would instead respond to the debate in the Rajya Sabha later in the day.
The developments in the Lower House spilled over into the Rajya Sabha, which witnessed a stormy start to the day, with the government and the Opposition trading barbs over the denial of permission to Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi to speak, and over attempts to stall the Prime Minister’s reply to the Motion of Thanks.
The Opposition led by Congress staged a walkout on Thursday from the Rajya Sabha after Leader of Opposition Mallikarjun Kharge was not allowed to quote from a "memoir" of former Army chief M M Naravane on the 2020 India-China conflict.
Soon after papers were laid in the Upper House, the Chair called a member to raise his Zero Hour mention. Meanwhile, Congress members started demanding that Kharge be allowed to speak first.
Later, Treasury and Opposition benches got engaged in altercations after Kharge said Congress leader Rahul Gandhi is not being allowed to speak in the Lok Sabha. Kharge also tried to highlight that the Lok Sabha was not running smoothly. He said both the Rajya Sabha and the Lok Sabha are pillars of democracy, and the ruling party was not letting democracy function.
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