BY PC Bureau
February 11, 2026: Union Parliamentary Affairs Minister Kiren Rijiju on Wednesday accused Congress MPs of barging into Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla’s chamber and verbally abusing him, calling the incident a serious breach of parliamentary decorum.
“At least 20–25 Congress MPs entered the Speaker’s chamber and hurled abuses at him. I was present at the time. The Speaker is a very soft-spoken person; otherwise, strict action would have followed. Senior Congress leaders, including Priyanka Gandhi Vadra and KC Venugopal, were also present and were instigating the confrontation,” Rijiju told reporters.
The minister alleged that the Congress MPs not only misbehaved with the Speaker but also openly defied parliamentary rules.
“They stormed into the Speaker’s chamber, used abusive language, and ignored the Speaker’s ruling. Subsequently, Rahul Gandhi stated that he did not need anyone’s permission to speak and would do so as he wished, without following rules. But parliamentary procedure is clear — no member, including the Prime Minister, can speak in the House without the Chair’s permission,” Rijiju said.
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The fresh allegations come amid a deepening standoff between the government and the opposition in Parliament. On Tuesday, opposition parties submitted a notice seeking the removal of Om Birla as Lok Sabha Speaker, accusing him of acting in a “blatantly partisan” manner and demanding that he recuse himself from presiding over the House until the matter is decided.
Opposition leaders have also accused Birla of making “false claims” against Congress MPs after he referred to certain “unexpected actions” in the Lok Sabha and urged Prime Minister Narendra Modi to delay his reply to the Motion of Thanks on the President’s Address.
The BJP, however, slammed the move, calling it an attempt to undermine parliamentary institutions and intimidate the Speaker.
Parliamentary Affairs Minister @KirenRijiju accuses Leader of the Opposition in #LokSabha #RahulGandhi of using national security issues as a political tool in the House.
Mr Rijiju says national security is an extremely important matter for the country and urges Mr Gandhi to… pic.twitter.com/e2HlxmyZGV
— All India Radio News (@airnewsalerts) February 11, 2026
On Tuesday, Rijiju warned that the situation in the Lok Sabha could have turned volatile if BJP MPs had reacted to the conduct of Congress members on the day the Prime Minister was scheduled to respond to the debate.
He released video footage from the February 4 proceedings showing opposition women MPs approaching treasury benches amid heated exchanges. Rijiju questioned whether such behaviour could be justified and accused the opposition of disrupting House proceedings in an unprecedented manner.
The minister claimed that BJP and NDA MPs were “extremely angry” over the incident but exercised restraint in the interest of maintaining parliamentary decorum.
Parliament has witnessed near-daily disruptions since February 2 after Congress leader Rahul Gandhi was stopped by the Chair from quoting an article based on excerpts from former Army chief M M Naravane’s unpublished memoir.
The impasse peaked on February 4 when Prime Minister Modi was unable to reply to the Motion of Thanks due to opposition protests. In a rare development, the Motion of Thanks was passed on February 5 without the customary prime ministerial reply, with the Speaker reading out the motion and securing approval through a voice vote amid sustained sloganeering by opposition MPs.
