Lok Sabha passes Motion of Thanks on president’s address without PM Modi’s reply

The Lok Sabha on Thursday passed the Motion of Thanks on the president’s address without Prime Minister Narendra Modi giving his customary reply, as Opposition MPs continued their protest, PTI reported.

This was the first time since 2004 that the prime minister has been unable to reply to the Motion of Thanks in the Lok Sabha, the Hindustan Times reported. In 2004, the Bharatiya Janata Party, in Opposition at the time, had prevented Manmohan Singh from responding to the motion, the Congress said on Thursday.

The Opposition has for the past three days been protesting against Congress leader Rahul Gandhi not being allowed to quote an excerpt of an unpublished memoir of former Indian Army chief MM Naravane about the political decision-making during the 2020 border tensions between India and China.

On Thursday, amid sloganeering, Speaker Om Birla put the Opposition’s amendments to the Motion of Thanks to vote and the proposed changes were rejected, PTI reported.

Birla then read out the Motion of Thanks to the President Droupadi Murmu for her customary address to the joint session of Parliament on January 28. It was approved by a voice vote.

After this, the proceedings of the Lower House were adjourned till 2 pm.

On Wednesday, Gandhi said that he had predicted that the prime minister would not come to Parliament because...

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