New Delhi: Union home minister Amit Shah showed up in Lok Sabha on Thursday (August 13) for the first time in weeks, participated in a rendition of the national song, Vande Mataram, and left. The prime minister also appeared for the first time in Lok Sabha during this session for this song and left.Prior to Thursday, Shah had last attended House proceedings on July 20 during this Session.Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla did not deliver the customary valedictory address in which the performance and productivity of the House during the Session are highlighted. Rajya Sabha adjourned sine die after the Vande Mataram rendition.All six stanzas of the national song were sung for the first time, as mandated by a law the government passed during the Monsoon Session. Not doing so during an official function may invite strict penalties as per the new law. The rendition lasted three minutes.The Bill mandating Vande Mataram’s siz stanzas was passed last week amidst an Opposition walkout in Rajya Sabha and disruption in Lok Sabha.Only Vande Mataram, no discussionNo discussion could take place on examination irregularities that have sparked student and youth anger and unrest across the country. No discussion could also take place on the theft of donations in the Ram temple. The Opposition parties had demanded, since the firing of pellet guns on protesters at Jantar Mantar, a statement from the home minister and the prime minister’s apology over the firing on protesters.On Thursday, Congress MP Pawan Khera chanted a version of a slogan popularised by the recent Jantar Mantar protests, mocking the prime minister for not attending the session during crucial developments in the country.Initially, the government denied shots were fired, but multiple media reports citing medical records later confirmed this was done. This buttressed the demand for a statement by the government on the floor of the House. However, the statement or debate never materialised.“We do not want a lecture on education from the home minister,” Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha Congress MP Rahul Gandhi clarified on August 10, after the government said it was ready to hold a discussion in parliament on paper leaks and student protests, provided the Opposition was ready to listen.“The country is not interested in what Amit Shah thinks about education. The country is interested in knowing: Did you shoot our children, Mr Amit Shah? And if you did, why?” Gandhi said at a joint press conference with party president Mallikarjun Kharge on August 10.Congress leader Jairam Ramesh also said on the same day that the Opposition has demanded, since the Monsoon Session began on 20 July, Shah’s statement on the brutality inflicted by the Delhi Police on protesting youth,” since Delhi Police operates directly under the home minister’s command” and a statement by the prime minister on the Ram temple theft case, since the trust governing the temple was announced by him.“The Opposition has made it clear from the outset that these two demands are non-negotiable. Now, under the Modi government’s last attempt to break the opposition’s unity and solidarity, these two demands cannot be separated from each other. Such attempts will not succeed,” Ramesh wrote on X.Stumbling block in Monsoon SessionThe primary stumbling block during the Session was home minister Shah’s absence from the House, as well as that of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, which sparked Opposition protests led by the Congress party. It later turned out that Shah had been arriving at parliament premises but not attending the Session, leading to more Opposition protests.“Home minister Amit Shah comes to parliament in the morning and goes back late at night. He stays in parliament all day. It is wrong to raise slogans. Amit Shah is that person, whose name makes all terrorists shiver,” Union parliamentary affairs minister Kiren Rijiju had clarified.When questioned about not entering Lok Sabha, Shah had said on August 12, “What is the point of going inside?” implying that the Session would not have room for discussion amidst disruptions and adjournments.Rijiju also said that the home minister was willing to give a statement in Lok Sabha, but on the condition that the Opposition would listen silently, without interrupting or raising objections.“The Congress party and Rahul Gandhi have been demanding a statement from the home minister. We are ready to give a detailed response. I request the Congress party and the Opposition not to be afraid or run away when the Home Minister gives his response. They must listen to the entire response and not disrupt,” Rijiju said in Lok Sabha.The home minister then wrote a letter on August 12, addressed to Birla, urging a discussion in the House. The Oppposition called this an unprecedented move and said that the letter did not mention the firing on youth protesters.Changing the discussionSpeaking outside Lok Sabha, Shah also claimed on August 12 that words like “missing” and “fugitives”, used by Opposition leaders for Shah and Modi’s absence from Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha, had only “recently begun to be heard in India’s public and parliamentary discourse”.While no discussion ultimately took place on any of the Bills or on the two primary concerns of the Opposition – firing upon protesters and donation theft – the government blamed the Opposition throughout the session, saying it did not allow a debate.Ruling party leaders also held a ‘protest walk’ in parliament building, holding placards against the Congress party, on Tuesday (August 9).It in in this context that Shah and Modi showed up in parliament to sing the national song after the Prevention of Insults to National Honour (Amendment) Bill, 2026, which cleared the Lok Sabha hurdle in 15 minutes. The Bill cleared Rajya Sabha amid a walkout by the Opposition. The law makes any insult to Vande Mataram a punishable offence, among other provisions.Unproductive sessionAlso on Thursday, Rijiju declared the outcome of the just-concluded Monsoon Session, saying Lok Sabha was productive for 19% of its allotted time and Rajya Sabha for 39%.The Wire earlier reported that two crucial Bills related to renaming Kerala and cooperative socieites were cleared in 15 minutes in Lok Sabha on August 11. Similarly, on August 7, a Bill related to micro, small and medium enterprises was passed in Lok Sabha in three minutes.During this session, a Bill raising the number of Supreme Court judges was passed in under 10 minutes on August 3. The Taxation and other Laws (Amendment) Bill, 2026 quickly cleared Lok Sabha without any debate – this Bill allows for UPI-based transactions to be taxed for the first time.On August 13, the controversial amended Foriegn Contribution (Regulation) Act (FCRA, 2010) was referred to a Joint Parliamentary Committe for further examination.The minister’s data confirmed that the trend of not holding debates on burning issues as well as passing Bills sans debate or discussion remained consistent across the Session.