Parliament reconvenes today, a day after Rahul Gandhi sparked storm over ex-Army Chief MM Naravane's unpublished memoir

Both Houses of Parliament are scheduled to continue the discussion on the motion of 'Thanks to the President's address' on Tuesday, a day after a major political row erupted as Leader of Opposition Rahul Gandhi sought to read in the Lok Sabha from an unpublished ‘memoir’ of former Army chief M M Naravane on the 2020 India-China conflict.

The Leader of Opposition (LoP), speaking during the Budget Session of Parliament, attacked Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Defence Minister Rajnath Singh, evoking a backlash from Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leaders who accused him of misleading the House and belittling the armed forces.

Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla disallowed Gandhi from raising the issue, but he did not relent, and several opposition leaders also rallied behind him. The House was adjourned twice and later for the day amid uproar as heated exchanges took place between the treasury and opposition benches.

While Gandhi said the government is "afraid" of a line that he wants to quote from the book and asserted that he would state that line in the Lower House, the BJP alleged that the Congress leader undermined the dignity of Parliament and hurt the morale of the Indian soldiers with his false accusations, in defiance of Speaker Om Birla's ruling.

The ruling party's leaders, including ministers, asked Gandhi to stop "speaking the language of anti-India elements".

Speaking to reporters, Gandhi claimed he was not allowed to quote from Naravane's unpublished book in the Lok Sabha because it indicts Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Defence Minister Rajnath Singh for "letting down" the army during the 2020 conflict with China.

"Naravane ji has written about the prime minister and Rajnath Singh ji clearly in his book, which has appeared in an article, and I am quoting from that article. They are scared because if it comes out, the reality of Narendra Modi ji and Rajnath Singh ji will be revealed. What happened to the 56-inch chest when China was before us and advancing?" Gandhi said.

Congress and its leaders also shared on social media excerpts from an article in a magazine that quoted Naravane's unpublished book.

Government sources said Gandhi was reading "concocted things" on China. They said there was ample material in the public domain on the decisions taken by India's first prime minister, Jawaharlal Nehru, on China, and alleged that he "surrendered thousands of acres of land just to further his own statesmanship".

Several opposition leaders, including TMC's Mahua Moitra and Kalyan Banerjee, RJD's Manoj Jha and SP chief Akhilesh Yadav, supported Gandhi on the issue.

Attacking the ruling BJP, Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge said the Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha has raised an extremely serious issue related to national security in the House, but the government is evading the questions on it.

"What exactly is written in the former Army Chief's book that has the big-shot ministers of the Modi government so rattled? Who is stopping his book from being published? The entire country knows that the BJP's nationalism is fake!" Kharge said in a post in Hindi on X.

Gandhi later told reporters that he was not being allowed to speak.

"I just have to say two-three lines which will reveal everything, but they are not allowing me to speak. I am saying that it is a matter of national security. These are the words of the army chief, a serious leader of our forces. It is a conversation he has had with Rajnath Singh ji and also with Narendra Modi ji," he said.

In Lok Sabha, today's proceedings will begin with an obituary for Congress leader Surupsingh Hirya Naik, who passed away in December 2025.

Union Parliamentary Affairs Minister Kiren Rijiju and MP Kodikunnil Suresh will move the motion.

MPs are also scheduled to move motions for election to the Committee on Estimates, the Committee on Public Accounts, the Committee on Public Undertakings, and the Committee on the Welfare of Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes.