Parliament last week completed the process of adopting Motions of Thanks to the President’s Address to its Joint Sitting, as also a General Discussion on the Union Budget for 2018-19, although it had frequent adjournments and disruptions. With this, the first part of the Budget Session, too, concluded, giving Parliamentary Standing Committees a 23-day recess to study in detail Demands for Grants (budgetary allocations) for various Ministries, before Parliament re-assembles on 5 March.

As the Motions of Thanks and the Budget discussions were general in nature, members representing the Government and the Opposition in the two Houses attacked each other’s side in a no-holds-barred manner, often giving contradictory analyses to the same data and facts on various issues. Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s replies to the Motion of Thanks debates in the two Houses, and Finance Minister Arun Jaitley’s replies to the Budget discussions, were not only comprehensive, but merciless in detail and history.

The Prime Minister replied to the Motion of Thanks debates in the two Houses on Wednesday. In the Lok Sabha, he gave his speech amid continuous slogan-shouting by Congress, Left and RJD members.

Referring to TDP and YSR Congress members’ shouting for “justice to Andhra Pradesh,” earlier, Modi said Andhra discontent was no surprise. The State was bifurcated by the Congress-led Government at the Centre, for similar political gains for which the Congress leadership had accepted the Partition of the country, he said.

Recalling how the Congress had upheld no democratic tradition in its long history, Modi said if Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel, enjoying larger party support, was made the Prime Minister of India in place of Jawaharlal Nehru, a part of Kashmir would not have been with Pakistan today. The Congress functioned in the same style even today, and a young Congress worker, who wanted to contest for Congress presidentship recently, was not allowed to do so. The Prime Minister said his government had introduced a new work culture in which there were no empty announcements. The Congress was attacking him for the crackdown against corruption and black money, he said.

In the Rajya Sabha, BJP president Amit Shah made his maiden speech while moving the Motion of Thanks on Monday, and recalled the Government’s achievements and initiatives in diverse fields. He said the Congress at the Centre attacked the Government for GST, while Congress Governments in States approved of its implementation. Leader of the Opposition Ghulam Nabi Azad, asserting that the Congress always respected Sardar Patel, said the charge of dynastic rule against the Congress was baseless as none from the family referred to by the BJP leaders, had held the Prime Minister’s post for the last 30 years.

Azad said the Modi Government was not “game-changer” but “name-changer,” and was taking credit for the schemes launched during the UPA rule by “repackaging” them. The country was today living in fear, and there was denial of freedom of speech. Instead of the New India promised by the Prime Minister, the country would be better off with the “Old India” UPA had left behind, he said.

The Prime Minister replied to the debate asking if Azad wanted the Old India of Bofors and Emergency when jails were filled up with people fighting for democratic rights. Modi used the occasion to ask parties to consider the suggestion for simultaneous Lok Sabha and Assembly elections.

There was continuous slogan-shouting from the BJP benches when former Finance Minister P Chidambaram spoke on the Budget in the Rajya Sabha.

When the Congress protested, Parliamentary Affairs Minister Ananth Kumar said the Prime Minister had given his reply to the Motion of Thanks debate in the Lok Sabha amidst slogan-shouting by the Congress.

As Bhupender Yadav of the BJP replied to Chidambaram, the Congress members shouted slogans without break, raising doubts if the new norm of speeches amidst shouting was going to be a new Parliamentary feature