Kiren Rijiju Meets Rahul Gandhi as Parliament Deadlock Continues on Day 13

Parliamentary Affairs Minister Kiren Rijiju met Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi on Wednesday as the Monsoon Session remained disrupted by protests and repeated adjournments. The meeting took place in Gandhi’s Parliament chamber amid efforts to resolve the continuing deadlock between the government and the Opposition.

The Lok Sabha was adjourned until 2 pm shortly after proceedings resumed, while the Rajya Sabha was adjourned until noon amid Opposition protests. Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla criticised the disruption and told protesting members that raising slogans inside or outside the House was not good for democracy. Opposition parties, however, continued pressing their demands before both Houses.

Several Opposition MPs, including Rahul Gandhi and Congress general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, held a protest march within the Parliament complex before the day’s proceedings. They demanded a statement from Home Minister Amit Shah regarding alleged police action against CJP protesters on July 20. The MPs also sought discussions on alleged misappropriation of Ram temple donations and restoration of statehood to Jammu and Kashmir.

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Trinamool Congress MP Sagarika Ghose blamed Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Amit Shah for the parliamentary stalemate. Speaking to reporters, she alleged that the two leaders were directly responsible for the logjam because they had not appeared before Parliament to respond to the Opposition’s concerns. The government had not immediately issued a detailed response to her allegations.

Despite the disruption, the Lok Sabha was scheduled to consider and pass the Bankers’ Books Evidence Bill, 2026, and the Taxation and Other Laws (Amendment) Bill, 2026. Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman was expected to introduce the banking legislation, which seeks to modernise rules governing evidence from bankers’ records and align them with contemporary digital-banking practices.

Sitharaman was also scheduled to move the taxation bill, proposing changes to the Payment and Settlement Systems Act, 2007, the Income-tax Act, 2025, and the Finance Act, 2026. In the Rajya Sabha, Union Minister Arjun Ram Meghwal was expected to introduce the Supreme Court (Number of Judges) Amendment Bill, 2026. However, the continuing protests left uncertainty over whether the scheduled legislative business would proceed.

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