The stormy first session of the Funds Committee of Parliament ended on Friday (February 13, 2026) with Parliament Speaker and Chief of the Opposition Mallikarjun Kharge criticizing the deletion of parts of his speech from the Rajya Sabha data.
He famous that a lot of the speech in the course of the Movement of Appreciation for the President’s Feb. 4 speech was expunged from the report, saying it was “towards democracy and freedom of speech.”
The second half of the finances session begins on March 9, and the finances session is scheduled to adjourn on April 2.
Kharge addressed the problem of deletion at the start of query interval, saying that the deleted sections included criticism of presidency insurance policies and even factual statements.
“I’ve been a member of Parliament for greater than 50 years and have at all times upheld dignity, decorum and respect for language and have labored as a member of Parliament with dedication. I subsequently sincerely request that the deleted elements of my speech be restored as they don’t include any anti-parliamentary or defamatory language and don’t violate Rule 261. Deleting giant elements of my speech is towards democracy and freedom of speech,” Kharge mentioned.
Speaker CP Radhakrishnan rejected his request, saying, “This isn’t proper, this isn’t democratic, you’re dictating to the Speaker.”
Commerce agreements and memoirs
The acrimonious session was dominated by clashes over Congress chief of opposition Rahul Gandhi’s speech on the India-US Interim Commerce Settlement and his alleged citation from former military chief MM Naravane’s unpublished memoirs. 4 stars of futureconcerning the occasions in the course of the India-China battle in 2020.
The chairman didn’t enable excerpts, resulting in repeated protests, the assembly was adjourned on grounds of misconduct, and eight opposition members have been suspended. Mr. Gandhi was not allowed to complete his speech in the course of the debate on the movement of thanks for the President’s speech.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi, after being suggested to take action by Speaker Om Birla, omitted his customary reply in Parliament and cited “sure info that ladies MPs could resort to unexpected acts that degrade the integrity of their workplace”. The Prime Minister then responded to a debate in Rajya Sabha.
The standoff escalated additional when opposition events filed a discover demanding Mr. Birla’s elimination as speaker over his blatant method of conducting the proceedings, whereas Bharatiya Janata Celebration MP Nishikant Dubey issued a discover to desk a substantive movement over Mr. Gandhi’s remarks.
Birla had been staying away from the proceedings ever for the reason that Opposition issued a discover to the Speaker. Nevertheless, protests and unrest continued over quite a lot of points. On Friday, the Home adjourned throughout query interval after opposition events demanded the resignation of Union Oil Minister Hardeep Singh Puri, whose identify allegedly appeared within the Epstein file.
Earlier, Union Parliamentary Affairs Minister Kiren Rijiju had mentioned the federal government would file a privilege movement towards the opposition chief in Lok Sabha for making severe allegations towards Puri with out prior discover. Nevertheless, most of Mr Gandhi’s speeches have already been deleted from the report.
On Friday, Rijiju mentioned the federal government didn’t intend to desk one other movement as personal members had already tabled one. “The federal government will chorus from submitting its personal movement as personal members have already notified the substantive movement,” he instructed reporters.
The Parliamentary Affairs Minister mentioned the Authorities would seek the advice of the Speaker on whether or not to ship the personal member’s movement to the Privileges Committee, the Ethics Committee, or on to the Home of Commons. “It hasn’t been determined but,” Rijiju mentioned.
A substantive movement is an unbiased, self-contained proposal submitted to the Home of Commons to specific a call or opinion and might embrace a plea for particular motion. Mr. Dubey mentioned he was looking for the revocation of Mr. Gandhi’s parliamentary membership and his lifetime ban from contesting elections.
Amid the turmoil, Parliament handed a invoice amending the Industrial Relations Act, the one invoice handed within the first section of the session.
Each homes of Congress are presently in recess for 3 weeks to permit ministry-related standing committees to think about finances allocations.
On the Rajya Sabha Enterprise Advisory Committee assembly held on Thursday to plan the second a part of the finances session, a number of opposition events demanded a dialogue on the position of the Ministry of Exterior Affairs, Ministry of Commerce and Ministry of Rural Growth. Biju Janata Dal and YSR Congress outdoors India additionally supported discussions on these three ministries. Nevertheless, the federal government proposed that solely the Ministry of Rural Growth and the Ministry of Atmosphere be included within the dialogue.
issued – February 13, 2026 11:55 AM IST
