NEW DELHI, Feb 2: The prime minister Narendra Modi seems to have revived the custom he had dropped during the last two years, possibly due to the prevailing Covid conditions. The opposition party members were pleasantly surprised to see the prime minister walking towards the opposition benches after presentation of the budget in the House on Tuesday.
After the finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman commended the budget papers to the House and the Lok Sabha was adjourned for the day, Modi, who frequently thumped the desks when she was reading out her speech, walked up to her and congratulated her. He then walked across the aisle towards the opposition benches to greet them.
After greeting Sitharaman, the Prime Minister turned towards the Opposition side and walked towards those benches. Seeing Modi moving to their side, MPs from YSRCP and TRS came out of their seats and stood at the centre of the House.
Greeting them, Modi went to Trinamool Congress MPs Sudip Bandyopadhyay and Saugata Roy, who had been giving critical comments about the Budget proposal while Sitharaman was reading her speech. “Tabiyat theek hein?,” Modi was heard asking. When Roy greeted him with folded hands, Modi was seen patting on his shoulder.
Then he greeted DMK’s T R Baalu while walking towards Congress’s Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury and Suresh Kodikkunnil. When he spotted National Conference leader Farooq Abdullah standing at the second row, he called out to him and asked: “Aapka health theek hein?” He shook hands with DMK’s A Raja and was seen talking to him briefly before reaching out to Chowdhury and patting Suresh.
According to Opposition leaders, although it was customary for the Prime Minister or the top leaders of the government to walk to the opposition benches at least on the first and last day of the session, but this was not seen in the last two years.
(Manas Dasgupta)
