New Delhi: The Winter Session of Parliament commenced Monday amid disruptions, with Prime Minister Narendra Modi setting the tone for the government’s combative stance by launching a sharp attack on the Opposition, saying the House was a place for “delivery, not drama”.
His remarks, made during the customary address outside the House ahead of the session, drew strong objections from Opposition leaders across parties, including the Congress, Samajwadi Party and Trinamool Congress (TMC).
The TMC voiced its displeasure at the PM’s comments even as it skipped the INDIA bloc’s floor-coordination meeting—part of its ongoing strategy to stay out of the Congress’s shadow while avoiding the perception of being soft on the BJP.
In his remarks, Modi took a swipe at the Opposition, saying it either uses Parliament as a “warm-up arena” before elections or to “vent frustration” after electoral defeats. “We need to work with a sense of responsibility. Parliament is not a place for drama, it is a place for delivery,” he said.
The comments gave the Opposition, still smarting from a string of assembly poll defeats, including the recent one in Bihar, an opportunity to momentarily set aside its differences and launch a concerted counterattack on the PM and the government.
The Opposition framed Modi’s remarks as an attempt to deflect demands for a discussion on the ongoing Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of voter rolls across nine states and three Union Territories.
Also Read: SIR drive isn’t NRC-CAA—it can exclude millions of genuine voters, not just Muslims
Turbulence ahead
Modi’s approach indicated that the government was not keen on yielding to the Opposition’s pressure on SIR, setting the stage for a turbulent session, scheduled to conclude on 19 December with important legislations on the agenda.
At the all-party meeting held Sunday, followed by a meeting of the Business Advisory Committee (BAC) to draw up the list of business for the House, the government did not make any commitment to the Opposition on SIR, even as Parliamentary Affairs Minister Kiren Rijiju suggested that a short duration discussion on the issue could be on the card under the broad formulation of electoral reforms.
Rajya Sabha Leader of Opposition and Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge said the BJP should “end this drama of distraction’’ and engage in debate on issues facing the public.
“The reality is that the government has been continuously trampling parliamentary decorum for the past 11 years, and the long list of such instances is well-known. BLOs are continuously losing their lives due to the workload during SIR. The Opposition wants to prioritise issues including ‘vote theft’, and we will continue to raise them in Parliament,” Kharge wrote on X.
शीतकालीन सत्र के पहले दिन प्रधानमंत्री @narendramodi जी ने संसद के समक्ष मुख्य मुद्दों की बात करने के बजाय फ़िर से “ड्रामेबाज़ी की डिलीवरी” की है !असलियत यह है कि संसदीय मर्यादा और संसदीय प्रणाली को पिछले 11 साल से सरकार ने लगातार कुचला है उसकी लंबी फेहरिस्त है ।🔸 पिछले…— Mallikarjun Kharge (@kharge) December 1, 2025
Speaking to reporters outside Parliament, Congress MP Priyanka Gandhi Vadra said demanding a discussion on issues such as SIR and air pollution should not be construed as drama.
“Let us discuss them. What is Parliament for? Speaking about and raising issues is not drama. Drama is not allowing democratic discussions on matters that concern the public,” she said. Lok Sabha Leader of Opposition Rahul Gandhi declined a comment on the PM’s charge.
TMC national general secretary Abhishek Banerjee, addressing the media in West Bengal, said the Opposition was operating within the legal framework in raising questions, and the government should not assume it is beyond accountability simply because it has won elections in a few states.
“We are not against SIR, but against the manner in which it is being executed,” Banerjee said.
Congress Rajya Sabha MP Jairam Ramesh taunted the PM, accusing him of staying away from Parliament proceedings while “speaking grandly to the nation’’ seeking constructive cooperation from the Opposition before each session.
“If Parliament doesn’t function smoothly, the fault lies entirely with the PM and his stubborn refusal to allow the Opposition to raise issues of urgent public importance. He always wants to have his way without giving the Opposition an opportunity to at least have its say,” Ramesh posted on X.
The PM never attends Parliament and undermines it. He never engages with the Opposition.Yet before every session he will stand outside the Parliament building and speak grandly to the nation asking for constructive cooperation from the Opposition to ensure the smooth…— Jairam Ramesh (@Jairam_Ramesh) December 1, 2025
Around 2.15 pm, the Lok Sabha was adjourned till Tuesday after repeated disruptions stalled proceedings. Amid the uproar, the Manipur Goods and Services Tax (Second Amendment) Bill, 2025, was passed to replace an ordinance.
Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman also introduced the Central Excise (Amendment) Bill, 2025, which will replace the GST compensation cess, and the Health Security and National Security Cess Bill, 2025 to levy cess on pan masala and gutkha products.
(Edited by Shashank Kishan)
Also Read: He didn’t sleep for days. Inside the SIR pressure that broke a Rajasthan BLO