Parliament concluded last week the Budget Session’s essential business of discussing and approved the Motion of Thanks to President Droupadi Murmu for addressing a joint sitting of Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha MPs.

The two Houses held a general discussion on the Union Budget also, listening to Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman’s extensive reply in the end.

But proceedings of Parliament were far from normal during the week, and went through disturbances, as during the last two days of the previous week.

The Opposition would have to ponder for a long time whether chanting slogans all through Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s 90-minute reply to the Presidential address debate in the Upper House on Thursday was justified.

Modi was unruffled by the Congress-led Opposition members’ slogan-shouting in the well of the House and said they had nothing but mud to throw around, not knowing that greater the mud thrown, the larger a lotus would blossom.

The Opposition was agitated that its Leader in the Upper House Mallikarjun Kharge was not allowed to speak when the discussion concluded, and the Prime Minister was about to begin his speech.

Maintaining the flow of the discussion, Chairman Jagdeep Dhankhar had called the Prime Minister, after the debate was over, and it was natural for everyone to look forward to what the Prime Minister had to say.

The Opposition was generally upset that the Prime Minister, while replying to the similar debate in the Lok Sabha a day earlier, had not responded to Opposition members’ references to the Hindenburg Research report on the Adani Group.

Whatever might have been the Opposition’s doubts, the Prime Minister once called by the Chairman, should have been heard without disturbance. The Prime Minister’s speech, in either of the two Houses of Parliament, is considered a unique occasion and one that deserves not to be missed in any part.

Modi gave a wholesome address in the Rajya Sabha, while replying to the no holds barred criticism by members who looked at the government performance from different angles. The occasion was special as the Prime Minister was joining the House in thanking the President for her speech.

The data and policy initiatives that he referred to in his speeches in the two Houses were not just informative but even useful for future debates. Modi had his say, and quite extensively, while giving an account of how his government was working to realize the people’s dream of development.

On behalf of the Opposition, Congress MP Rahul Gandhi had in the Lok Sabha on Tuesday raised several questions regarding the Adani Group’s growing financial stature, as well the US research group’s observations on it. The Opposition members from several other parties including DMK’s Kanimozhi, Trinamul Congress’ Mahua Moitra, and Samajwadi Party’s Dimple Yadav referred to various issues, including employment and retail inflation.

The Prime Minister said in the Lok Sabha that the Opposition was coming up with compulsive criticism against him and there were just allegations and no constructive criticism. The tenures of Congress-led Governments were marked by scams after scams, with little concern how development suffered in the aftermath. In the Rajya Sabha, the next day, he said the Opposition alleged he was against federalism, forgetting how the Congress Governments at the Centre had dismissed 90 elected State governments led by parties which are now supporting the Congress attacks against him.

The general discussion on the Union Budget brought up fresh attacks on the Government for its economic policies and their impact on the common man. The Rajya Sabha debate came just after the Prime Minister had finished his reply on the President’s address amidst disturbances.

When the first speaker from the Opposition, Shaktisinh Gohil of the Congress, was called to speak, members from the treasury benches tried to pay the Opposition in the same coin by drowning his speech in noisy shouting. Seeing the Treasury Benches’ conduct, the Chairman said “disorder in the House can never be wholesome. The disorder which we had when the Hon Prime Minister addressed us was most unfortunate. But any disorder by way of reaction is also not appropriate.”

The House had to be repeatedly adjourned and the debate was put off to Friday afternoon, after the private members’ business. During the week, the Opposition was worried at Mr Dhankhar’s ruling that members must authenticate allegations made by them. There was concern in the Opposition that remarks by its leaders were expunged from the proceedings’ records.