Stormy 1st leg of Budget Session over; Parl to meet again on March 9

NEW DELHI: The tumultuous first leg of the Budget Session, which witnessed heated exchanges over the India-US interim trade deal and unpublished memoir of former army chief M M Naravane, concluded on Friday and the House will now reassemble on March 9. The three-week recess period will allow standing committees to examine allocations to various central ministries given in the Union Budget.

Earlier in the day, the House was adjourned for one hour after Opposition members raised slogans demanding resignation of Union Minister Hardeep Puri. The opposition members were also protesting against the India-US interim trade agreement.

The first part of the Budget Session began on January 28 with the address of President Droupadi Murmu to a joint sitting of the two Houses.

The Lok Sabha witnessed dramatic scenes and repeated adjournments from February 2 afternoon after the Chair disallowed Leader of the Opposition Rahul Gandhi to quote from the excerpts of the memoir of Naravane relating to the India-China conflict of 2020.

The House witnessed noisy protests and dramatic scenes in the coming days leading to the suspension of seven Congress and one CPI-M member from the House for the remainder part of the Budget Session for unruly behaviour, including climbing on tables of officials and throwing torn papers at the Chair.

Fearing unpleasant scenes, Speaker Om Birla requested Prime Minister Narendra Modi not to attend the Lok Sabha when he was to respond to the Motion of Thanks on the President’s address.

The prime minister did not speak in the House but later responded to a similar debate in the Rajya Sabha.

The Opposition also submitted a notice to move a resolution to remove Birla as Speaker. Taking moral grounds, Birla decided not to chair House proceedings till the issue relating to his removal was settled.

The resolution seeking Birla’s removal as the speaker is likely to come before House in the second part of the session beginning March 9.

Rajya Sabha proceedings were also adjourned on Friday till March 9, as Parliament went into a three-week-long recess. The Upper House met for Zero Hour at 11 am and was adjourned at 1 pm after the scheduled Question Hour.

The Budget Session will conclude on April 2.