RS adjourned for day amid sloganeering by ruling, Opposition MPs

Rajya Sabha was adjourned for the day on Thursday as sloganeering by MPs from both Opposition and treasury benches continued during the discussion on the Union Budget 2023-24.

The Upper House was earlier adjourned twice in the afternoon session when it took up the discussion on the Budget after Prime Minister Narendra Modi finished his speech on the motion of thanks on the President's address and the motion was passed.

The House reassembled at 5:15 pm to resume proceedings, with Chairman Jagdeep Dhankhar, who had called a meeting of House leaders of the ruling and opposition parties, asking members to maintain order for the discussion to continue.

As Congress member Shaktisinh Gohil started his speech, the treasury bench started sloganeering, following which Dhankhar adjourned the House for the day.

Before this, when the House had assembled at 4:30 pm after a brief adjournment, Chairman Dhankhar had called Gohil for a discussion on the Union Budget 2023-24.

However, members of the Bharatiya Janata Party disrupted the House by raising "Modi, Modi" slogans.

The BJP MPs were seeking an apology from the Opposition, which had on Thursday disrupted the prime minister's address.

During the prime minister's address, several opposition parties were engaged in shouting slogans against the government, demanding a joint parliamentary committee probe into allegations against the Adani Group.

Gohil said his name would probably go down in history for being the member during whose debate speech the ruling party disrupted the House.

Earlier, the House adopted the motion of thanks on the President's address after Prime Minister Modi's speech.

The motion was adopted with a voice vote and some amendments moved by opposition parties were negated.

Lok Sabha adopted the motion on Wednesday.

President Droupadi Murmu addressed a joint sitting of Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha on the first day of the Budget Session on January 31.