Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s reply to the motion of thanks on the President’s address in the Lok Sabha on Wednesday was delayed after the House was adjourned till February 5 amid a ruckus by opposition MPs.

PM Modi had arrived at the Parliament for his Lok Sabha address, scheduled for Wednesday. However, the House was adjourned till tomorrow as BJP MP PP Chaudhary was speaking.

According to top government sources, the Opposition disrupted proceedings in the Lok Sabha for the last two days during the discussion on the President’s Address, preventing the debate from taking place. Despite the ruckus, the schedule for the Prime Minister’s reply remains unchanged.

After the House was adjourned on Tuesday, senior ministers, including Rajnath Singh, Kiren Rijiju, Pralhad Joshi, Dharmendra Pradhan and Arjun Meghwal held a prolonged meeting with Speaker Om Birla to ensure that the Prime Minister delivers his reply as planned on Wednesday evening.

The government has also urged the Speaker to engage with other opposition parties, some of whom are said to be unhappy with the Congress “holding the House to ransom".

The government has also urged the Speaker to engage with other opposition parties, some of whom are said to be unhappy with the Congress “holding the House to ransom".

The developments follow a sharp escalation in the government-opposition faceoff on Tuesday, when eight MPs, seven from the Congress and one from the CPI(M), were suspended for the remainder of the Budget session for what the Chair described as “unruly behaviour".

The suspensions came after Lok Sabha Leader of Opposition Rahul Gandhi was disallowed for the second consecutive day from quoting an article citing an unpublished “memoir" of former Army chief M M Naravane on the 2020 India-China clash.

Gandhi later wrote to Speaker Om Birla, protesting the decision and calling it a “blot on our democracy". He said it was the first time a leader of Opposition had not been allowed to speak on the motion of thanks.

As protests continued inside the House, parliamentary affairs minister Kiren Rijiju moved a resolution seeking the suspension of the eight MPs, saying they acted in “utter disregard" of the authority of the Chair by tearing papers and throwing them.

Reacting to the suspensions, Congress MP Manickam Tagore said, “This is an attack on the democracy of India," while Hibi Eden said Gandhi was not allowed to speak, which led MPs to protest. The House was adjourned for the day amid continued uproar, setting the stage for the Prime Minister’s reply a day later against the backdrop of heightened political confrontation.

Source: News18