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India’s Budget Session entered a fresh day of disruption on Monday, February 9, 2026, with the Lok Sabha adjourned for the day amid a continuing confrontation between the government and the Opposition over Leader of Opposition Rahul Gandhi ’s insistence that he be allowed to speak before the general discussion on the Union Budget 2026-27 begins.  The stand-off unfolded as Parliament was scheduled to start its first full round of debate on the budget presented by Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on February 1, even as the Rajya Sabha proceeded with a day-long discussion on budget priorities, fiscal policy and competing claims about growth, jobs and the distribution of central resources among States. File Photo of LoP RaGa; Via: Bharat Jodo on X The Lok Sabha opened with Speaker Om Birla congratulating India’s Under-19 men’s cricket team for its World Cup victory before Question Hour began, but proceedings were quickly interrupted by Opposition sloganeering demanding that Rahul G...

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi used his reply to the debate on the Motion of Thanks to the President’s Address in the Rajya Sabha on Thursday to mount a broad political attack on the Congress, the Nehru-Gandhi family and other opposition parties, as opposition members raised slogans and later walked out. Representational Image of PM NaMo; via:NationPress This ultimately turned the Budget Session’s escalating confrontation into a sharper exchange over parliamentary conduct, identity politics and competing claims of national interest. In a nearly 100-minute speech delivered amid sloganeering, Modi accused the Congress leadership of habitual wrongdoing and made a pointed reference to Mahatma Gandhi’s surname, saying, “For some people, stealing is a family profession. What’s shocking is that those habitual thieves have also stolen surname of a Gujarati, Mahatma Gandhi.”  He followed with a separate jibe framed around “startup culture,” claiming the Congress “never promoted start...

Proceedings in the Lok Sabha were once again adjourned for the day within seconds of the House assembling on Wednesday evening for Prime Minister Narendra Modi ’s expected reply to the debate on the Motion of Thanks to the President’s Address.  This unfolded in the wake of the renewed opposition protests that triggered chaos in the chamber and forced the cancellation of his speech. Representational Image of PM NaMo; Source: NationPress The House had reconvened at around 5 pm amid indications that the Prime Minister would address members, but disorder broke out immediately as Congress MPs entered the Well and aisles of the Lok Sabha. They were seen raising slogans against the suspension of eight Opposition members during the ongoing Budget Session of the Indian Parliament .  Several women MPs from the Opposition blocked access to the treasury benches, including the Prime Minister’s seat, and displayed a large banner reading “Do what is right.”  With the disruption escal...

India’s Parliament remained paralysed on Tuesday as Congress leader and Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi escalated his attack on Prime Minister Narendra Modi , alleging that the recently announced India–United States trade agreement was concluded under “immense pressure” and linking the deal to what he described as two external “pressure points” involving industrialist Gautam Adani and the release of material connected to Jeffrey Epstein . Representational Image Source: LoP RaGa Speaking to reporters outside Parliament after repeated adjournments of the Lok Sabha, Rahul Gandhi said the Prime Minister had been “compromised” and accused him of “selling the country” through the trade agreement that reduced U.S. tariffs on Indian exports to 18% from 25% . Rahul Gandhi said the agreement, which had been stalled for several months, was suddenly finalised because of pressure that could damage the Prime Minister’s image.  “There is extreme pressure on him. Narendra M...

U.S. President Donald Trump announced on Monday that the United States and India had finalised a trade deal that lowers U.S. reciprocal tariffs on Indian goods to 18%, linking the agreement to India’s future energy purchases and its role in global efforts to end the war in Ukraine, following a telephone conversation with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi . POTUS Trump with PM Modi, file photo; Via US Ambassador to India Announcing the agreement on his social media platform Truth Social, Trump said it was “an Honor to speak with Prime Minister Modi, of India, this morning,” describing Modi as “one of my greatest friends and, a Powerful and Respected Leader of his Country.”  Trump said the two leaders discussed trade and “ending the War with Russia and Ukraine,” adding that Modi had “agreed to stop buying Russian Oil , and to buy much more from the United States and, potentially, Venezuela.” Trump said this shift “will help END THE WAR in Ukraine, which is taking place right now, ...

✍️ Written by Saket Suman A democracy begins to collapse quietly when memory is treated as contraband and testimony is made conditional on permission. The most telling sites of this erosion is the uneasy space occupied by books that are written, circulated and discussed but not allowed to formally exist. Home Minister Amit Shah visiting World Book Fair in New Delhi; Via HM Across political systems, unpublished or “under review” manuscripts are often framed as incomplete, unauthorised, or unsafe for public consumption. The argument is procedural on the surface because nothing exists until it is cleared, stamped and released. But this framing misses the deeper truth.  A manuscript does not become real because a seal is affixed to it. It becomes real because it is written, because someone who witnessed events chose to place memory into language. Clearance can regulate circulation but it cannot annul authorship. Excerpts from such works enter the p...

The Budget Session of India’s Parliament descended into repeated disruptions on Monday after Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi attempted to quote from the unpublished memoir of former Army chief Manoj Mukund Naravane during the debate on the Motion of Thanks to the President’s Address. This triggered sharp objections from the treasury benches and forced multiple adjournments before the House was suspended for the day. Rahul Gandhi ups the ante on national security; via: Shaandelhite The confrontation unfolded when Rahul Gandhi rose to respond to remarks made earlier by BJP MP Tejasvi Surya, who had criticised the Congress party’s record on nationalism .  Rahul Gandhi said he wished to counter those allegations by referring to passages concerning India’s military standoff with China , which he attributed to Naravane’s memoir, titled Four Stars of Destiny , and to a magazine article that had cited the unpublished book.  Highlights of Speech 02 Feb, 2026 S...

India's Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Sunday presented the Union Budget 2026–27 in the Lok Sabha, outlining higher public capital expenditure, a modest further reduction in the fiscal deficit, and a package of sectoral measures spanning infrastructure, manufacturing, healthcare, skilling and exports, even as opposition leaders criticised the speech as lacking detail and some markets sold off on proposals to raise transaction taxes. The President extended her best wishes to the Union Finance Minister and her team for the presentation of Budget. The government set public capital expenditure at Rs 12.2 lakh crore for FY2026–27, up from Rs 11.2 lakh crore in the current fiscal year, and projected the fiscal deficit at 4.3% of GDP for 2026–27, compared with 4.4% in the revised estimate for 2025–26.  The Budget Estimates peg non-debt receipts at Rs 36.5 lakh crore and total expenditure at Rs 53.5 lakh crore, with net tax receipts estimated at Rs 28.7 lakh crore.  Gross mark...

India’s Ministry of External Affairs on Saturday rejected claims circulating in media reports that link Prime Minister Narendra Modi to late financier and convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, saying references to the Prime Minister in newly released U.S. investigative records relate only to his official visit to Israel in July 2017 and nothing beyond that.  File Photo: July 2017: PM Modi visits Israel; Via: OyeVivekk In a statement, the ministry described other allusions in an email attributed to Epstein as “trashy ruminations of a convicted criminal” and said they “deserve to be dismissed with the utmost contempt.” Our statement to clarify certain reports ⬇️ 🔗 https://t.co/WvcGHeA01D pic.twitter.com/thmZFcNWsM — Randhir Jaiswal (@MEAIndia) January 31, 2026 The clarification came after the U.S. Department of Justice on Friday released a large tranche of material connected to Epstein, making public more than three million pages of records, over 2,000 videos and about 18...