India, Feb. 5 -- The Lok Sabha on Thursday passed the motion of thanks to the President's address to the joint sitting of both Houses of Parliament on January 28 without Prime Minister Narendra Modi's customary reply for the first time since 2004, amid continuing Opposition protests and logjam.

Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla read out the motion before it was passed by a voice vote. He adjourned the proceedings until 2pm, as the protests continued. The motion was passed after the opposition's amendments to it were rejected.

This was the second time that the Prime Minister could not reply to the debate on the president's speech. In 2004, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh could not deliver his speech after the debate on the president's address as ...