The quietest three minutes in the Lok Sabha, Vande Mataram, and a complete washout

The quietest period of the Lok Sabha’s Monsoon Session was likely three minutes and ten seconds on Thursday morning. The Prime Minister and other members of the House stood in silence while the national anthem, Vande Mataram, was performed. The House was then adjourned sine die, according to the Speaker.

To familiar scenes, the House came together. The Opposition started yelling “apologise, apologise” and “who ordered the lathi-charge?” when Home Minister Amit Shah entered the Lok Sabha before 11:00 am. As Shah motioned for everyone to take their seats, ruling-party MPs caused a disturbance. The MPs from the ruling side took a seat. Amit Shah grinned at the rhetoric of the opposition.

Narendra Modi, the prime minister, entered the House. Playing was Vande Mataram. Speaker Om Birla proclaimed, “Adjourned sine die,” ending a tumultuous session marked by sloganeering, disturbance, attacks and counterattacks, and virtually no discussion outside of the new law on paper leaks.

It’s interesting to note that Birla skipped the customary farewell speech, which would have highlighted the Lok Sabha’s output and performance during the session. There wasn’t much to discuss. The Opposition staged loud protests at the start of the session on July 20, first over the NEET paper leak problem and then over suspected donation theft at the Ram shrine in Ayodhya. Following a brief meeting in which the Congress brought up the subject of insulting party chairman Mallikarjun Kharge in Uttarakhand, where his event venue was allegedly “purified” by a group after the rally, the Rajya Sabha was also adjourned sine die.

On July 20, the opposition persisted in calling for Shah to make a statement in the House over the crackdown on students who were protesting in the capital. Shah had urged the Speaker to set aside time in cooperation with the Opposition to begin the discussion on the students’ problem on Wednesday, saying he was prepared for a debate and would address any question posed by the Opposition. However, the Opposition rejected the suggestion and began calling for Amit Shah’s resignation.

The leaders of the INDIA bloc abstained from the customary tea meeting with the Speaker of the Lok Sabha following the House adjournment, indicating that the animosity did not end there. Leaders of the INDIA group did not attend the Speaker’s tea meeting, while senior NDA leaders, including the Prime Minister, did.

Eleven measures were passed by the Lok Sabha on paper, but all of them—aside from the law on paper leaks—were hurried thru in a commotion without any debate. Under the slogans of the opposition, the laws were passed by voice vote, usually in a matter of minutes. The new law on paper leaks was debated by the Lok Sabha for around 11 hours before it was passed, while the other bills were just hurried thru amid the commotion.

A brief discussion took place in the House on Wednesday when the government proposed sending the FCRA Amendment Bill, 2026 to the Joint Parliamentary Committee. Calling the measure anti-NGO and anti-minority, the opposition, backed by the Congress and SP, called for its withdrawal. The measure was forwarded to the JPC after the administration denied the accusation.

Both the opposition and the ruling party staged competitive demonstrations at the Parliament complex on the last day. The ruling NDA protested against the police action against protesting students in Jharkhand, focusing on Rahul Gandhi and the Congress, while the INDIA bloc resumed its protest against Amit Shah and brought up the Ram Mandir donations problem.