Speaker Om Birla Cites Security Fears As Lok Sabha Passes Motion Of Thanks Without PM Modi’s Reply

New Delhi: Underlining the growing trust deficit between the government and the Opposition, the Lok Sabha on Thursday passed the Motion of Thanks to the President’s address without PM’s reply, a first in 22 years.

Speaker’s Disclosure

What followed sharpened the political edge of the episode, with Speaker Om Birla disclosing that he had personally urged PM Narendra Modi to stay away from the House, citing fears of “unexpected activity” and possible bodily harm. Birla said he had received “concrete information” that some Congress members could approach the PM’s chair, and that Wednesday’s protests — when Opposition MPs came close to Modi’s bench — had prompted him to err on the side of caution.

Had anything untoward occurred, the Speaker argued, it would have been “very appalling” and damaging to India’s democratic traditions.

Political observers read Birla’s statement less as a security advisory and more as institutional damage control. Shielding the Prime Minister from a volatile House may also have spared the government the optics of chaos splashed across front pages. Yet, in doing so, the episode raised uncomfortable questions about whether Parliament was being subordinated to political convenience.

Congress Hits Back

The Congress was quick to reject the Speaker’s reasoning. Party general secretary and MP Priyanka Gandhi Vadra accused the government of scripting the Speaker’s justification. She mocked the idea that Modi stayed away out of fear, saying he lacked the courage to face the House because “three women MPs were standing in front of his bench”. “What nonsense is this?” she said, dismissing any suggestion of a threat to the Prime Minister’s safety.

Priyanka insisted there was never any plan to harm Modi and accused the government of manufacturing excuses to avoid scrutiny. If ruling party MPs were allowed to “stand and talk nonsense”, she said, the Opposition was well within its rights to protest. More pointedly, she asked why the government refused to answer a more fundamental question: why the Leader of Opposition was being repeatedly denied the right to speak.

Rule Invoked

At the heart of the standoff is Rahul Gandhi and his attempt to raise the issue of the 2020 India-China clashes in Galwan Valley. On Monday, Gandhi read from the memoir of former Army chief M.M. Naravane, prompting objections from the Treasury benches that the book was “unpublished”. The Speaker invoked Rule 349 to bar him. Even when Gandhi returned the next day with an authenticated article based on the memoir, he was again stopped. Eight Congress MPs were suspended amid scenes of disorder, including papers being thrown towards the Chair.

On Wednesday, Gandhi escalated the issue by reading extracts from the memoir to the media within the Parliament complex, claiming that when Chinese tanks entered Indian territory, Naravane was told by the Prime Minister: “Jo uchit samjho, woh karo” — do what you deem correct.

As protests continued, the Motion of Thanks sailed through in the Prime Minister’s absence, leaving behind a Parliament where procedure prevailed, but politics — sharp, suspicious and unresolved — dominated the narrative.