The stormy first phase of Parliament’s budget session ended on Friday (February 13, 2026) with Congress president and Leader of the Opposition Mallikarjun Kharge criticizing the removal of parts of his speech from the Rajya Sabha records.
Noting that large portions of his February 4 thanksgiving speech to the president had been redacted from the records, he said it was “against democracy and freedom of expression.”
Parliament budget session today 12 live
The second part of the budget session will begin on March 9 and the budget session is scheduled to end on April 2.
Raising the issue of deletion at the beginning of the Question Hour, Mr. Kharge said that the deleted portions included criticism of government policies and even factual statements.
Mr Kharge said: “I have served as a parliamentarian for more than five decades, and have served as a legislator and Member of Parliament loyally, always maintaining dignity, decency and respect for language. Therefore, I sincerely request the reinstatement of the parts of my speech that were removed, as they do not contain any unparliamentary or defamatory words, and do not violate Rule 261. Removing such a large part of my speech is against democracy and freedom of expression.”
President CB Radhakrishnan rejected his request, saying: “This is not right, this is not democratic, you are instructing the President.”
Business deal and notes
The acrimonious session was dominated by clashes over opposition leader Rahul Gandhi’s speech in the Lok Sabha on the interim India-US trade deal and his insistence on quoting former Army chief MM Naravane’s yet-to-be-published memoir. Four stars of destinyabout an incident that occurred during the 2020 India-China conflict.
The president rejected these excerpts, leading to repeated protests and the postponement and suspension of eight opposition MPs due to their unruly behaviour. Mr. Gandhi was not allowed to complete his speech during the discussion on the motion of thanks for the President’s address.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi skipped the usual response in the Lok Sabha after Speaker Om Birla advised him to do so, citing “specific information that women MPs may resort to unexpected action that would degrade the dignity of his office”. The Prime Minister later responded to the discussion in Rajya Sabha.
The standoff escalated further when the opposition parties filed a notice seeking removal of Mr. Birla from the post of Speaker for allegedly conducting the proceedings in a blatant manner, while BJP MP Nishikant Dubey filed notice to file a substantive motion against Mr. Gandhi over his remarks.
Since the Notice of Opposition against the Speaker, Mr. Birla has moved away from presiding over the proceedings. However, protests and unrest continued over various issues. The House on Friday witnessed an adjournment during Question Hour as the Opposition demanded the resignation of Union Petroleum Minister Hardeep Singh Puri over his name allegedly appearing in the Epstein files.
Union Parliamentary Affairs Minister Kiren Rijiju had earlier said that the government will move a distinct motion against the Leader of the Opposition in Lok Sabha for making a serious allegation against Mr. Puri without giving prior notice. However, a large portion of Mr. Gandhi’s speech has already been removed from the records.
On Friday, Mr. Rijiju said the government would not move a separate motion as one member had already moved a motion. “Since one member has already given notice of submitting a substantive motion, the government will refrain from submitting its own motion,” he told reporters.
The Parliamentary Affairs Minister said the government would consult with the Speaker on whether the private member’s proposal should be sent to the Privileges Committee, the Ethics Committee, or submitted directly to the House. “No decision has been taken yet,” Mr. Rijiju said.
A substantive motion is a stand-alone motion presented to the Council to express a decision or opinion, and may include a request for specific action. Mr Dubey said he had sought to have Mr Gandhi revoked from the Lok Sabha and banned from contesting elections for life.
Amid the turmoil, Parliament passed a bill to amend the Industrial Relations Act, the only legislation approved in the first phase of the session.
Sessions of both chambers have now been postponed for three weeks to allow relevant standing committees of the ministry to examine budget allocations.
At the House of Representatives Business Advisory Committee meeting held on Thursday to plan the second part of the budget session, several opposition parties demanded discussions on the functioning of the ministries of Foreign Affairs, Trade and Rural Development. The Biju Janata Dal and the YSR Congress, both outside the India bloc, also supported discussions on these three ministries. However, the government proposed that only the Ministries of Rural Development and Environment be discussed.
— Press Trust of India (@PTI_News) February 13, 2026
