New Delhi: The tumultuous first leg of the Budget session of Parliament, which saw heated exchanges over the India-US interim trade deal and unpublished memoir of former army chief M M Naravane, concluded on Friday. The House will now reassemble on March 9, PTI reported.
Earlier in the day, the Lok Sabha 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 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 over the next few 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.
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.
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 adjourned on Friday till March 9. The Upper House met for Zero Hour at 11 am and was adjourned at 1 pm after the scheduled Question Hour.
The three-week recess period will allow parliamentary standing committees to examine allocations to various central ministries given in the Union Budget.
Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman presented the Union Budget for the financial year 2026-27 in Parliament on February 1.
