Opposition leader Rahul Gandhi on Wednesday said he had predicted that Prime Minister Narendra Modi would not come to Parliament because “he is scared” and “does not want to face the truth” about the unpublished memoir of former Indian Army chief MM Naravane.

Earlier in the day, he had said that did not think that Modi “will have the guts to come to the Lok Sabha today”, adding that he would give the prime minister a copy of Naravane’s memoir if he came to Parliament.

Gandhi’s comment that the prime minister was scared came after the Lok Sabha was adjourned for the day before Modi could address the House during the debate on the Motion of Thanks for the president’s address.

The prime minister was expected to speak in the Lower House at 5 pm, ANI reported. However, the proceedings were adjourned until 11 am on Thursday because of protests by the Opposition.

On Wednesday, the Opposition’s protest intensified when Bharatiya Janata Party leader Nishikant Dubey said he brought a series of books allegedly critical of the Gandhi family, NDTV reported.

Krishna Prasad Tenneti, a member of the Lok Sabha chairpersons’ panel overseeing the proceedings in the House at the time, said he could not allow this, citing Rule 349, which bars members from reading from a book, newspaper or letter except in connection with the business of the House.

Dubey’s alleged refusal to stop prompted the Opposition to protest, NDTV reported.

Later on Wednesday, the BJP alleged that the Opposition had staged protests to not allow the ruling party to speak in Parliament, ANI reported.

BJP MP Manoj Tiwari told ANI that the Opposition was “doing all this to prevent Prime Minister Modi from speaking” about the India-United States trade deal announced on Monday.

“The country is watching everything, and the country will demand an answer from the Congress,” he was quoted as saying.

Since Monday, Gandhi has been stopped from discussing an excerpt from the former Army chief’s memoir about the political decision-making during the 2020 border tensions between India and China. The excerpts from the book had been reported in December 2023 and were quoted by The Caravan magazine on Saturday.

BJP MPs have been objecting to Gandhi speaking on the matter, arguing that he was quoting from a book that has not yet been released.

On Tuesday, eight Congress MPs were suspended for the remainder of the Budget Session for throwing papers at the chair as they protested against Tenneti for calling on other members to speak before Gandhi had completed his speech.

On Monday, when Gandhi first quoted the excerpt, he was interrupted by Defence Minister Rajnath Singh and Union Home Minister Amit Shah, who accused the Congress leader of misleading the House.

The Lok Sabha had been adjourned for the day amid the ruckus that followed.

In his memoir Four Stars of Destiny, Naravane wrote that on August 31, 2020, he had sought “clear direction” from India’s political and military leadership for the Army to respond to Chinese tanks moving towards Rechin La in eastern Ladakh.

Naravane said that hours after first seeking orders, he had been told by Singh that he had spoken with Modi, and that the military was to do whatever it deemed appropriate.

This implied that the Indian response was to be “purely a military decision” and that “the onus was now totally on [him]”, the former Army chief wrote.

The incident Naravane referred to had taken place amid the border tensions between India and China in eastern Ladakh.

The book was to be published in April 2024, but has not been released yet. In October, Naravane said that the publisher was waiting for the Union government’s approval.

The Union government has not commented on the contents of Naravane’s memoir.

However, on Monday, the defence minister said in Parliament that the book would have been published if its contents were accurate, adding that Naravane could challenge it in court if he thinks that his memoir has been unjustly barred from being released.