As both the Houses of Parliament got adjourned till March 9 on Friday, it brought curtains to the volatile first half of the Budget session, which witnessed a major stand-off between the government and the Opposition after Congress MP Rahul Gandhi was not allowed to refer to excerpts from former Army Chief MM Naravane’s memoirs, leading to regular disruptions.Later, Rahul, who is the Leader of Opposition (LoP) in the Lok Sabha, launched a massive attack on the government, accusing it of compromising the interests of farmers and various sectors through the interim trade deal with the US.The first half of the Budget session also saw the Congress-led Opposition (minus the Trinamool Congress), bring a motion for removal of Speaker Om Birla for his alleged partisan conduct and repeated denial of speaking opportunities to Opposition members, especially the LoP.This was only the fourth instance in parliamentary history of the country when a motion for removal of the Speaker was moved by the Opposition. Similar motions were earlier brought against the first-ever Speaker GV Mavalankar in 1954 and then against Hukum Singh in 1966 and Balram Jakhar in 1987. The drama began on February 2, a day after the presentation of the Union Budget 2026-27 by Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, when Rahul got up to speak during the Motion of Thanks on President’s Address to both Houses of Parliament in Lok Sabha.As he tried to refer to a magazine article which carried excerpts of former Army Chief’s memoirs, which related to the 2020 military action in eastern Ladakh, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh objected to it, saying that the LoP could not refer to excerpts from a book which had not been published.Speaker Om Birla disallowed Rahul from reading out of the article citing Rules 349 and 353, which relate to a member reading from a book while referring to an issue not related to the subject being discussed in the House (Rule 349) and levelling allegations without giving prior notice (Rule 353).The Opposition launched raucous protests inside and even outside the Lower House, leading to repeated disruptions. In between all this, Rahul even brought copies of the memoir in Parliament. In the resultant protests inside the Lok Sabha, eight lawmakers were suspended till the remaining Budget session, several women MPs, mainly from the Congress, blocked the Prime Minister’s chair on the day he was supposed to reply to the discussion on the Motion of Thanks in the Lok Sabha, with a large banner criticising the government over its conduct during the Galwan military standoff.While Modi did not come to the House (and thus could not for the first time in 12 years reply to the discussion on Motion of Thanks in the Lower House), the Speaker said he did so as per his advice, as it was felt that something might happen as the Opposition was protesting in an ‘unprecedented’ manner.This resulted in the Congress-led Opposition submitting a motion for Speaker’s removal, which is to be brought for consideration to the Lok Sabha on March 9, when the House reassembles for the second half of the Budget session.