Monsoon session ends on bitter note

The monsoon session of Parliament ended on an acerbic note on Thursday with the Opposition skipping customary tea hosted by Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla for floor leaders.

While Prime Minister Narendra Modi accompanied by senior ministers Rajnath Singh, Amit Shah and Kiren Rijiju were present, Leader of the Opposition in Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi chose not to go.

Rahul left for Bihar to resume his ongoing rally against alleged vote theft and the EC’s electoral rolls revision soon after Opposition’s Vice Presidential candidate B Sudarshan Reddy filed his papers today.

SP chief Akhilesh Yadav also bunked the tea with the government decrying the decision. Parliamentary Affairs Minister Kiren Rijiju said, “Perhaps the Opposition stayed away as they were too embarrassed to face the Speaker after displaying unparliamentary conduct through most part of the session, especially yesterday and today.”

Rijiju said the session was a 100 per cent success “for the people of India and the government because major pro-people Bills and those ensuring probity in public life were taken up”. “But the session was unsuccessful for the Opposition their MPs could not raise issues of their constituents,” said the minister.

Rijiju noted that while protest is a must in a democracy, “destruction of Parliament property, physical blocking of senior ministers’ mics, banging of Speaker’s panel, and hurling torn papers in the chamber and smuggling stones into the House are unpardonable”.

With the government again defending its call to decline a discussion on the EC’s Bihar exercise on grounds that no minister can respond to a debate about what a constitutional body was doing, the Opposition slammed the government for its “rigidity”.

Congress chief whip in Rajya Sabha Jairam Ramesh said the government did not allowed any discussion on Bihar SIR and then on August 20, the Union Home Minister brought three Bills, which were against the Constitution.

“What is the aim of these three Bills? The meaning of these Bills is that if you don't get washed in BJP's washing machine in 30 days, then you will have to resign. We protested against it,” said Jairam about the 130th Amendment Bill 2025, which Shah introduced in the Lok Sabha amid unprecedented Opposition ruckus yesterday.

As the government maintained that the Opposition went back on its word of “not coming into the Well and only protesting against the Constitution amendment Bill from their seats”, Jairam said the Opposition was clear and unanimous in this resistance.

In fact the Congress said the monsoon session would be best known for a “volcanic eruption called Jagdeep Dhankhar”.

“The 2025 monsoon session will be known for one reason — unprecedented resignation of Vice President Jagdeep Dhankhar. Since July 21, when he resigned we have not heard or seen him. The country and all MPs want to know about him,” said Jairam.