Parliamentary Affairs Minister Kiren Rijiju brought up Rahul Gandhi’s now-famous hug-and-wink moment from 2018 during Tuesday’s Lok Sabha debate, using it to question the Leader of Opposition’s seriousness drawing a sharp response from Priyanka Gandhi Vadra.
“I have never seen such a leader, who comes and hugs the prime minister, then goes back to his seat and winks at fellow party MPs (‘aankh maarta hai’),” Rijiju said in Hindi. Rahul Gandhi was not present in the House at the time, nor was Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
Rijiju’s remarks came as he spoke against the Opposition’s no-confidence motion targeting Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla over allegations of biased conduct. The incident he referenced dates to 2018, when Rahul Gandhi while positioning the Congress as a “party for every Indian” and calling the BJP a “divisive force” told the House he intended to “clean your hearts of hatred, and ignite love instead” before proceeding to hug the Prime Minister. The gesture was widely criticised by the BJP as “childish” at the time, and PM Modi later mocked it himself after awkwardly returning the hug and shaking hands.
Priyanka’s Retort Over Nehru Reference
Immediately after Rijiju concluded his speech, Rahul’s sister and fellow MP Priyanka Gandhi Vadra responded. “They are unable to digest what the Leader of Opposition says, because in the last 12 years he is the only one who has refused to bow,” she said. She also took a pointed jab at the ruling side’s invocation of Jawaharlal Nehru: “They say I keep smiling when they speak. I smile, I laugh because they are suddenly praising Jawaharlal Nehru whom they otherwise abuse for his speech when a motion was brought against the LS Speaker of the time in the 1950s.”
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Rijiju had urged the Congress-led Opposition to “remember at least” what Nehru said, citing his defence of then-Speaker GV Mavalankar.
A Couplet to Close
Rijiju ended his address with a couplet by poet Muztar Khairabadi, originally written in the context of the last Mughal ruler Bahadurshah Zafar on the eve of British takeover of Delhi’s throne: “Na kisi ki aankh ka noor hun, na kisi ke dil ka qaraar hun; jo kisi ke kaam na aa sake, main woh ek musht-e-ghubar hun.” Roughly translated, the verse reads: “I’m not the light of any eye, for me none has a care; no use to anyone am I, a fistful of dust merely scattered.”
Rijiju vs. Opposition: The Broader Sparring
Earlier in the session, responding to Congress leader Gaurav Gogoi’s claim that Rahul Gandhi was not permitted to speak in the House, Rijiju said, “That day I was upset for the fact that the Opposition MP said that ‘I do not need permission from anyone to speak in Parliament’. This is on record.”
Amid sloganeering, Rijiju added he has “no cure” for those who consider themselves “above the Speaker,” and accused Congress MPs of attempting to “decide on who will sit on the chair.” He called it “unfortunate that they want to steal this right.”
Gogoi, for his part, opened the debate with a swipe at Rijiju: “In future, when there will be research on parliamentary records and transcripts are looked at, statistics will tell that Kiren Rijiju was the parliamentary affairs minister who interrupted the Opposition the most.” Union Home Minister Amit Shah came to Rijiju’s defence, asserting that such interruptions are only warranted when parliamentary rules are not being followed. Shah is scheduled to address the Lok Sabha on Wednesday during the continued discussion on the no-confidence motion against Speaker Birla.
Speaker Birla has been absent from the chair throughout the proceedings. With no Deputy Speaker in place since 2019, senior NDA members have been presiding over the House in rotation.
The Root of the Conflict
At the core of the standoff over Speaker Birla’s conduct is Rahul Gandhi’s display of an unpublished manuscript ‘Four Stars of Destiny’ by former Indian Army Chief General MM Naravane — during the first half of the budget session. Rahul cited excerpts from the book, claiming they revealed PM Modi’s failure to take accountability during the 2020 border standoff with China.
The government countered that referencing a manuscript not yet cleared by the Ministry of Defence was illegal and violated parliamentary rules. Defence Minister Rajnath Singh called the purported contents “incorrect,” and noted that Naravane could have approached the courts if he disagreed with the MoD withholding its approval — a process that has been pending since at least 2023.
