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India’s Parliament saw a fresh political clash on Wednesday, February 11, after Leader of Opposition Rahul Gandhi used the Lok Sabha debate on the Union Budget 2026–27 to attack the India–US interim trade deal and allege that it compromises India’s interests on data, energy security and farming. This prompted the government to accuse him of making unsubstantiated claims and to signal action to remove or expunge parts of his remarks from the House record. Image Source: Who_Care on X Speaking during the Budget discussion, Rahul Gandhi argued that India is entering an era of heightened geopolitical conflict and “energy and financial weaponisation,” and said the country’s core strengths—its people, the data they generate, food supply and energy—must be protected.  He alleged that the interim deal represented a “wholesale surrender,” claiming it involved “free data flow” to the United States, no data localisation, limits on digital taxation, and no requirement for source code disclo...

Opposition parties led by the Congress on Tuesday submitted a formal notice seeking the removal of Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla , escalating an ongoing confrontation with the government over the conduct of parliamentary proceedings during the Budget Session. The Lok Sabha was adjourned till 2 p.m. amid continued disruptions. Representational Collage, Via: Alok Sharma Chief Whip of the Congress in the Lok Sabha Kodikunnil Suresh and party Whip Mohammed Jawed Ahmed handed over the notice to Lok Sabha Secretary-General Utpal Kumar Singh, sources confirmed. The motion has been moved under Article 94(c) of the Constitution, which allows a resolution for the removal of the Speaker to be submitted with a mandatory 14-day notice period. Congress MP Gaurav Gogoi said the notice was submitted at 1:14 p.m. and accused the Speaker of conducting House business in a “blatantly partisan manner.”  He said Opposition parties had repeatedly raised concerns that the Leader of the Opposition in the Lok...

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...

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...

Speaking at the Golden Jubilee celebrations of St. Thomas English High School in Gudalur, Tamil Nadu, Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha, Rahul Gandhi delivered a deeply personal and pointed address by weaving together themes of education, democracy, technological transformation, and the need for social and institutional humility. Framing the modern “information age” as both an opportunity and a threat, Rahul Gandhi cautioned against mistaking access to data for wisdom. He underscored the role of schools in fostering not just informed students, but wise and kind citizens.  Rahul Gandhi during Golden Jubilee celebrations of St. Thomas English High School in Gudalur, Tamil Nadu. Via: RakeshJeeINC “If in the information age we do not have wisdom… the world will become a very unpleasant place,” he warned, emphasizing that schools like St. Thomas must nurture empathy and discernment as the foundation for national development. In an interaction that saw him field questions fr...

✍️ Written by Saket Suman There is no neat way to say this: the Great Indian Dream is dying. And it’s not being killed in faraway conflict zones, or in newsrooms that peddle noise instead of truth. It is being murdered in back offices of publishing houses and literary circuits, where contracts are torn with a smile, where deadlines are missed with impunity, where one writer's labour of years is discarded over silence, and where reputations are butchered so that the powerful remain unbothered. The very spaces meant to champion creativity are the first to abandon those who try to speak freely, those who refuse to bend, those who dare to write with sincerity. Representational Image: The 1st stamp of independent India shows the Indian Flag, released on 21Nov1947. I have lived through this. I have worked on a book that came from lived experience, research, pain, and a rare kind of stubborn hope. And I have watched that book — like countless others...

Opening the Lok Sabha debate on electoral reforms, Leader of the Opposition Rahul Gandhi delivered a sharply worded and symbolic address, accusing the Election Commission of India of colluding with those in power and enabling systematic voter suppression under the guise of bureaucratic process.  Image Source: Economic Times Screengrab of Sansad TV Without naming the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) exercise directly in his opening remarks, Rahul Gandhi laid the groundwork for a broader critique of institutional erosion and democratic subversion, framing the vote as the fabric binding 1.4 billion Indians in a shared national project. In a speech rich with metaphor but grounded in political accusation, Rahul Gandhi began with a reference to Mahatma Gandhi’s emphasis on khadi, positioning it as a symbol not merely of resistance but of people’s self-expression and unity.  “Khadi is not just a cloth. Khadi is the expression of the people of India,” he said, before drawing a parall...

The political climate in India has further polarised just ahead of voting in Bihar, as Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha (the lower house of the Parliament of India) and prominent Indian politician Rahul Gandhi accused the ruling BJP of orchestrating what he called “one of the biggest electoral frauds in Indian democratic history.”  Citing what his party calls “H Files” -- a cache of alleged evidence -- Rahul Gandhi claimed that 25 lakh fake votes swung the 2024 Haryana Assembly election, which the BJP narrowly won. Image from LoP Rahul Gandhi's powerful presentation. Via: INC India In an extended presentation in New Delhi, Rahul Gandhi alleged that voter rolls were manipulated at scale. He cited examples of duplicate voter IDs, including 22 instances of a Brazilian model’s photo being used under different names like “Sweety” and “Seema,” and a separate case of one woman’s face appearing on 223 voter IDs across polling booths.  “This isn’t random -- it’s industrialis...