New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s reply to the Motion of Thanks to the President’s Address in the Lok Sabha was cancelled on Wednesday (February 4) after the confrontation over former Army chief General M.M. Naravane’s yet-unpublished book escalated in parliament.Opposition members were seen standing with posters and placards when the Lok Sabha reconvened at 5 pm. However within minutes BJP MP Sandhya Ray, who was presiding over the house, adjourned proceedings for the day.Earlier on Wednesday, parliament saw the opposition and the treasury benches facing off over books, with Lok Sabha leader of opposition Rahul Gandhi bringing a copy of Naravane’s book to the parliament premises, and BJP MP Nishikant Dubey bringing a number of books alleging corruption by the Gandhi family.Stopped from referring to excerpts of the book published in an article in The Caravan, Gandhi said that the book exists despite the government claiming it does not, and that he would hand over a copy to Modi if he comes to parliament.In the evening, when Modi’s scheduled address at 5 pm was cancelled, Gandhi in a statement said that the prime minister did not come as he was scared.“As I said, PM Modi won’t come to Parliament because he is scared and doesn’t want to face the truth,” he wrote on X.While no reason was provided for why parliament was adjourned when the prime minister’s address was scheduled, Modi later put out a statement congratulating the new Manipur chief minister Yumnam Khemchand Singh.Since Monday, parliament saw dramatic scenes over the former Army chief’s memoir that includes a series of revelations including on how he was handed a “hot potato” during Chinese troop movement in Ladakh in August 2020.Gandhi’s speech during the discussion on the Motion of Thanks to the President’s Address was disrupted by the treasury benches on Monday, following which Lok Sabha speaker Om Birla barred him from referring to it citing Rule 349. On Tuesday Gandhi authenticated the book but was stopped from making his speech and eight MPs were suspended.On Wednesday, Gandhi appeared with a copy of the book in hand and said that the government “is scared” and does not want the book to be referred to in parliament.In the afternoon, the Lok Sabha saw uproar as Dubey began his address by furnishing several books on “corruption” by members of the Gandhi family.“A discussion has been going on over a book that has not even been published. I want to refer to books that refer to the Nehru family’s deceit, debauchery, corruption. These are published books,” said Dubey.He referred to among others a book titled Edwina and Nehru and said it details Nehru’s “aiyashi” (debauchery) when India was being partitioned.While Telugu Desam Party MP Krishna Prasad Tenneti sought to stop Dubey citing Rule 349, which Birla had invoked to bar Gandhi from quoting Naravane’s book, Dubey continued furnishing books for about three minutes until the house’s proceedings were adjourned amid protests by the opposition.Outside parliament, Congress MP Priyanka Gandhi accused the government of running parliament according to its own will.“It must be made clear that Nishikant Dubey speaks only with the government’s permission. When the government wants the house to be disrupted, he is made to stand up – this happens every day. We request permission for the leader of opposition to quote from a publicly published book that is available and has been made openly available. Yet, he is not being allowed to quote from it in the name of the rules,” she said.“This is meant to show that only the government’s will runs parliament. This is an insult to the speaker, to parliament, to democracy and to the people of this country … Instead, the same people are repeatedly allowed to speak irrelevant things, again and again, bringing up Nehru. They dare to question Indira Gandhi.”Congress MPs also went to Birla’s office to protest against Dubey’s actions in the house.“We went to the speaker and asked him to take sufficient action against Nishikant Dubey,” said Congress MP and party general secretary K.C. Venugopal.