By Both Houses of Parliament saw intense exchanges on Tuesday as leaders including Home Minister Amit Shah, Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge, Leader of the Opposition Rahul Gandhi, Akhilesh Yadav, and Parliamentary Affairs Minister Kiren Rijiju debated electoral reforms and Vande Mataram.
The winter session, which began on December 1, is set to continue these contentious discussions. On Wednesday, the Lok Sabha will resume debate on electoral reforms, while the Rajya Sabha will continue deliberations on Vande Mataram as part of its 150th-anniversary commemoration.
On Tuesday, the NDA and the INDIA bloc traded accusations over electoral reforms and the special intensive revision of voter rolls. The government alleged that Congress was deflecting from its electoral setbacks, while the Opposition reiterated claims of “vote theft.”
Rahul Gandhi sharply criticised the NDA, accusing the BJP and RSS of capturing institutions and undermining democracy. He demanded machine-readable voter lists be shared with all parties a month before elections and called for scrapping provisions that destroy CCTV footage after 45 days as well as the immunity granted to election commissioners.
Akhilesh Yadav argued that credible electoral reform requires an impartial Election Commission and proposed expanding the panel responsible for selecting commissioners. Law Minister Arjun Ram Meghwal countered that Special Intensive Revision has been conducted since 1952 and is necessary to maintain accurate electoral rolls amid migration and urbanisation.
In the Rajya Sabha, Amit Shah rejected claims that the debate on Vande Mataram was linked to the upcoming West Bengal elections. He emphasised the song’s historic role in India’s freedom movement and criticised Congress for removing two stanzas decades ago, calling it appeasement politics that contributed to national division. Shah also responded indirectly to Priyanka Gandhi Vadra’s earlier remarks questioning the need for the debate.
Mallikarjun Kharge defended Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, asserting that the government was using the Vande Mataram debate to divert attention from national issues, and accused Prime Minister Modi and Amit Shah of repeatedly disparaging Jawaharlal Nehru and other Congress leaders.
