NEW DELHI: Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s scheduled reply to the discussion on the Motion of Thanks on the President’s address could not take place on Wednesday, as the Opposition stepped up its attack on the government for blocking Leader of Opposition Rahul Gandhi’s speech and suspension of eight MPs.
As soon as the House convened at 5 pm after three adjournments, women MPs from the Opposition marched towards the Treasury benches holding banners which read “Do what is right.”
Modi was not present in the House when the Opposition members made their way to the Treasury benches protesting against the suspension of MPs and former Army Chief M M Naravane’s unpublished memoir. BJP MP Sandhya Rai, who was in the chair, adjourned the proceedings for the day in a few minutes.
In a post on X, Rahul Gandhi said, “PM Modi won’t come to Parliament because he is scared and doesn’t want to face the truth.” Later, Congress chief Mallikarjun Kharge called a meeting of the floor leaders in both Houses. It was decided that floor leaders of all Opposition parties will meet on Thursday morning to chalk out strategy ahead.
“How can the PM speak when the LOP was not allowed to speak? What was the PM going to reply to?” said Congress MP Jairam Ramesh.
Though Speaker Om Birla convened a meeting of the Opposition leaders at 4 pm ahead of the PM’s scheduled speech, it failed to break the logjam. The Opposition put forward two demands — the suspension of BJP’s Nishikant Dubey and to allow Rahul to speak in the House. The meeting was attended by Congress leaders Priyanka Gandhi and K C Venugopal among others. The leaders conveyed to the Speaker that if the government does not yield, the Opposition will disrupt the PM’s speech.
Earlier, a row erupted when Dubey began his speech by referring to books such as Edwina and Nehru and Mitrokhin Archive among others and made remarks targeting former prime ministers Jawaharlal Nehru, Indira Gandhi and Rajiv Gandhi.
