As the Budget Session of Parliament begins on Wednesday, a day before the interim Budget 2024, PM Modi in his address sent a message to ‘unruly MPs’ and called for introspection. Referring to the women’s reservation bill that was passed in the new Parliament, PM Modi said, “On January 26 too, we saw a display of women empowerment. Today, President Droupadi Murmu will address the session and tomorrow Nirmala Sitharaman ji will present the interim Budget. This is a festival of Nari shakti.”

In his address, PM Modi also took a swipe at MPs who were accused of disrupting the parliamentary proceedings as he said, “In the last 10 years, MPs did what suited them in Parliament. But I must say that those who are ‘habitual offenders’, those who have the habit of doing ‘cheerharan’ of democracy should introspect at the last session. They can even ask the people of their constituency whether the people remember them for that.”

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Those who opposed for the sake of opposing are not remembered unlike those who use the harshest words for criticism but contribute to the debate positively, meaningfully, PM Modi said. “This is also an opportunity for regret. I will urge my fellow parliamentarians to not let go this session,” PM Modi said.

‘We would present the full Budget after election’: PM Modi

PM Modi in his address said it is the tradition to present an interim budget when the election is around. “We will present the full budget after we form the government after the election,” PM Modi said

The proceedings of both the Houses will start half an hour after the President’s address. The Secretary Generals of Rajya Sabha and Lok Sabha are scheduled to lay on the table of their respective Houses a copy of the President’s address.

The last session witnessed an unprecedented number of suspensions as 146 opposition MPs were suspended between December 17 and 19. The suspension of 14 MPs was revoked on a day before the session. The 14 suspended MPs are K Jayakumar and Abdul Khaleque of the Congress and Vijay Kumar of the Janata Dal (United) from the Lok Sabha; and Congress’s Jebi Mather, L Hanumanthaiah, Neeraj Dangi, Rajmani Patel, Kumar Ketkar, and GC Chandrasekhar, Communist Party of India’s Binoy Viswam and Sandosh Kumar, Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam’s Mohamad Abdulla and Communist Party of India (Marxist)’s John Brittas and AA Rahim from the Rajya Sabha.