The second half of the Budget session of Parliament got off to a torrid start Monday with the Opposition and the government sparring over three contentious subjects—the duplication of EPIC (voter ID) numbers, the New Education Policy (NEP) and the possible delimitation of Lok Sabha constituencies.
Lawmakers walked out, Union education minister Dharmendra Pradhan came under intense attack over his controversial description of DMK MPs (which he withdrew later), and the Lok Sabha was temporarily adjourned even as opposition parties came together to challenge the government on the issues.
Bharatiya Janata Party ( BJP) chief and Union health minister JP Nadda accused the Opposition of trying “defame” the House and suggest “a refresher course” to brush up on rules and parliamentary processes after the parties walked out of the Rajya Sabha. In the Lok Sabha, an incensed Speaker threatened to take action against DMK lawmaker Dayanidhi Maran for making allegations against the Chair.
“The House will run according to the rules,” Speaker Om Birla announced, and told the government that if it didn’t act against Maran, he would. Union parliamentary affairs minister Kiren Rijiju said he will assess the House’s opinion before moving a motion and criticised Maran’s conduct.
The fractiousness on display portends a heated Parliament session in which the government plans to pass the Waqf Bill amendments, a number of other bills, the finance bill 2025 and the demand for grants. On Monday, the Rajya Sabha cleared the amendments to railways act and the Lok Sabha passed the Bills of Landing Bill.
In the Lok Sabha union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman tabled the Manipur Budget for 2025-26, while minister of state for home, Nityanand Rai laid the Proclamation issued by the President, under article 356 of the Constitution in relation to the State.
The state is currently under the President’s Rule and as per rules, Parliament will have to approve its Budget.
NEP
The first round of protests erupted during the Question Hour in the Lok Sabha when a DMK MP accused the Centre of withholding education funds and said, “Is it right to use funds for schools as a tool for revenge against a state government?
Pradhan accused the DMK of doublespeak and said the state had reneged on its decision to implement PM-SHRI, The PM SHRI initiative, launched in September 2022, aims to transform 14,500 government schools into model institutions. This centrally sponsored scheme follows a 60:40 funding model between the Centre and the states.
Mentioning that states such as Karnataka and Himachal Pradesh, both under the Congress, have implemented PM-SHRI, Pradhan said, “They (DMK ) are dishonest. They are ruining the future of Tamil Nadu students. Their only job is to raise language concerns. They are not doing justice. They are undemocratic. Government of India is ready to talk.”
Pradhan and Tamil Nadu CM and DMK chief MK Stalin have been sparring for weeks over the Union government’s decision to hold back ₹2,152 crore of funding under the Samagra Shiksha schemeto Tamil Nadu, citing the state’s decision to not sign NEP. Tamil Nadu sees NEP as a way for the Union to impose Hindi on the state through the three-language policy.
Kanimozhi has filed a notice for breach of privilege against Union education minister Dharmendra Pradhan. In her notice, the DMK leader alleged that the minister made “highly malicious, misleading and defamatory remarks and statement.” Kanimozhi alleged that “the minister used intemperate remarks such as “misled”, “dishonest”, “undemocratic” and “uncivilized” against me and my parliamentary colleagues from the DMK and other supporting parties…”
Lok Sabha Speaker had ordered for removal of an objectionable word by Pradhan.
Pradhan subsequently withdrew the comments and said, “I should not have used it.”
VOTER LISTS
The second disruption was in the Rajya Sabha where the Opposition walked out. Some opposition lawmakers had given notices to discuss the issue of delimitation in the southern states, duplicate EPIC numbers, the stock market slump and US President Donald Trump’s statement on funding by USAID to increase voter turnout in India.
Deputy Speaker Harivansh referred to a ruling by Chairman Jagdeep Dhankhar to dismiss the notices, but the Opposition rose in protest and then walked out.
The Opposition’s walkout led the leader of the House JP Nadda accusing them of trying “defame” the House and suggesting “a refresher course” on rules and parliamentary processes.
“This trend of moving adjournment notices is a vicious design to demean the institution of Parliament. They (the Opposition) are not interested in debate. They want to give an impression that the government does not want to answer… The government is ready to discuss anything under rules and regulations,” he said.
Speaking outside Parliament, TMC’s Saket Gokhale, who also sought a discussion on the EPIC cards, said, “ECI stayed in denial until Mamata Banerjee raised the issue of duplicate EPIC IDs. Finally, they have now been forced to admit that duplicate EPICs exist. Clearly, ECI has not been serious about ensuring free and fair elections. Also, the fact that the BJP is the only party does not seem to be concerned about duplicate EPICs and electoral manipulation unlike the entire Opposition raises questions on who the ECI is working for.”
Congress leader Rahul Gandhi and West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee have separately alleged discrepancies electoral rolls. Gandhi had alleged that in last year’s Maharashtra assembly election, over 39 lakh voters were added to the state’s electoral rolls within five months. On February 27, Banerjee accused the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) of enrolling “fake voters” from other states in the electoral rolls with the “help” of the Election Commission.
In a clarification issue on March 1, the Election Commission (EC) said same electors photo identify card (EPIC) number does not imply duplicate or fake voters. The EC said that the duplication in EPIC number happened due to the use of “decentralised and manual mechanism” with “identical alphanumeric series” by two different states and Union Territories (UTs). The EC added that to do away with this confusion, it will ensure allotment of a unique EPIC number to all registered electors, and the ‘ERONET 2.0 platform’ will be updated to facilitate and support this process.
Kharge also demanded that a comprehensive discussion on the allegations of electoral irregularities and the duplication of EPIC numbers in West Bengal and the alleged surge in voter numbers ahead of the Maharashtra assembly elections.
“The Congress party has already raised the issue of the sudden surge of lakhs of voters in Maharashtra in just six months between Vidhan Sabha and Lok Sabha elections. ECI is yet to respond to our demand of providing us with a combined photo voter list in Excel format, which has been used for voting,” Kharge said in a post on X.
In the Lok Sabha, Leader of the Opposition Rahul Gandhi too raised the issue of the surge in voter numbers ahead of the Maharashtra elections.
DELIMITATION
Speaking outside the House, P Sandosh of the Communist Party of India said the party wanted to raise the issue of delimitation as it is a serious concern. “It is not a North- South issue. It seems that we (southern states) are paying the price of participating in the population control programme. The home minister should come to the house and make a statement that status quo will be maintained in the future also,” he said.
At the heart of the spiralling controversy is the issue of delimitation – originally scheduled for 2026 – which redefines the number of representatives a state sends to the Lok Sabha on the basis of population. A 2019 analysis by Milan Vaishnaw and Jamie Hintson of Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, projected that such an exercise could see the overall strength of the Lok Sabha rising to 668, with Uttar Pradesh alone seeing its tally increase from the current 80 to 143 by 2026. In contrast, Tamil Nadu, which currently sends 39 representatives, could see the number rise to just 49. Kerala, which sends 20, would see no change at all.