NEW DELHI: Prime Minister Narendra Modi was present in the Parliament to hear Congress' leader Adhir Ranjan Chowdhary's speech during the no-trust debate in the Lok Sabha on Thursday. During the address Chowdhury said that the power of no-confidence motion has brought the Prime Minister in the Parliament.
"The power of no-confidence motion has brought the Prime Minister in the Parliament today. None of us were thinking about this no-confidence motion. We were only demanding that PM Modi should come to the Parliament and speak on the Manipur issue. We were not demanding any BJP member to come to the Parliament, we were only demanding our PM to come," said Adhir Ranjan.
PM Modi is set to reply to the no-trust motion in the lower house today around 4:00 pm, said a tweet from the Prime Minister's office. "At around 4 PM this evening, PM @narendramodi will be taking part in the discussion on the Motion of No-Confidence," the Prime Minister's Office tweeted. Earlier, Union Defence Minister Rajnath Singh also confirmed that the PM would be present in the parliament today.
The opposition moved a no-confidence motion against the Modi government on July 26 which was accepted by Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla.
This is the second time Prime Minister Narendra Modi is facing a no-confidence motion. Congress MP Gaurav Gogoi on Tuesday initiated the debate on the motion which later turned into a heated argument between the Opposition and the Centre. The Parliament has been witnessing a logjam over a number of issues, including the violence in Manipur, since the beginning of the Monsoon Session on July 20.
The opposition leaders have been demanding a full-fledged discussion on the issue including a statement by the prime minister in the Parliament. Both houses -- Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha -- have seen repeated adjournments amid massive ruckus by the opposition leaders. Manipur had been on the boil for the last three months after ethnic clashes broke out between two tribal communities Meitis and Kukis, when the Manipur High Court asked the state government to consider adding Meiteis to the list of Scheduled Tribes.