The Lok Sabha witnessed brief disorder on Monday shortly after Leader of Opposition Rahul Gandhi began his address, as Defence Minister Rajnath Singh and Home Minister Amit Shah interrupted him over a reference he made during his speech.
Gandhi was quoting from an unpublished memoir of former Army chief General Manoj Mukund Naravane when Rajnath Singh objected, stating that unpublished material cannot be cited in Parliament. Singh urged the Leader of Opposition to rely only on content that has been formally released.
An attempt by Leader of Opposition Rahul Gandhi to cite excerpts from the unreleased memoir of former Army chief General M.M. Naravane sparked a heated exchange in the Lok Sabha on Sunday, leading to repeated interventions from senior ministers and the Speaker.
Gandhi referred to a magazine article that claimed to carry passages from the draft manuscript of Naravane’s memoir while responding to allegations from the BJP that the Congress lacked patriotism. During his remarks, he cited a line referring to Chinese tanks at Doklam, prompting Defence Minister Rajnath Singh to object.
Singh questioned the authenticity of the reference, asking whether the book had been officially released. Stating that it had not, he argued that material from an unpublished work could not be quoted on the floor of the House. “The book is yet to be published,” he said, maintaining that such citations were against parliamentary practice.
Home Minister Amit Shah echoed the objection, saying references to a manuscript that had not been made public could not be treated as credible sources for debate in Parliament.
Speaker Om Birla backed the ministers, reminding members that parliamentary rules do not permit the citation of unauthenticated sources, including newspaper reports or books lacking official publication. He requested Gandhi to continue his speech without relying on the disputed reference.
Gandhi, however, maintained that the excerpts published by The Caravan magazine were accurate and reliable, adding that Defence Minister Rajnath Singh was also mentioned in the material. Congress members supported Gandhi, with party leader K.C. Venugopal urging the Speaker to allow the reference and let the government respond later.
The Chair remained firm, reiterating the restrictions, a position reinforced by Parliamentary Affairs Minister Kiren Rijiju and BJP MP Nishikant Dubey, who pointed out that even published works are often barred from being quoted in the House. Birla concluded by stressing that parliamentary conventions prohibit such citations regardless of publication status.
Home Minister Amit Shah supported the objection, cautioning against the use of such references in parliamentary proceedings. “A magazine can publish anything,” Shah said, arguing that only officially published books or authenticated documents should be quoted in the House.
The intervention triggered protests from Opposition members, who accused the Treasury benches of disrupting Gandhi’s speech, while ruling party MPs insisted that parliamentary conventions be followed. The exchange led to a brief ruckus before proceedings moved ahead.
Earlier today, Congress MP Manickam Tagore on Sunday submitted an Adjournment Motion Notice in the Lok Sabha, seeking an urgent discussion on what he described as “serious international reports” allegedly mentioning Prime Minister Narendra Modi in communications linked to Jeffrey Epstein.
The Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) has, however, rejected any such linkage. MEA spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal on Saturday dismissed the claims, calling the reference to the Prime Minister in recently released US investigative files “little more than trashy ruminations by a convicted criminal,” referring to Epstein.
