Modi government ‘rattled’ by Opposition unity in Parliament, says Congress

The Congress party on Thursday (August 13, 2026) claimed that the Narendra Modi government was “scared and rattled” during the Monsoon Session of Parliament., and that the Opposition’s unity and solidarity prevented several contentious legislative measures from being pushed through.

The party accused Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Home Minister Amit Shah of “running away” from Parliament and refusing to answer questions raised by the Opposition.

In a post on X, Congress General Secretary (Organisation) K.C. Venugopal said Mr. Modi and Mr. Shah stayed away from Parliament for most of the session and appeared only for the concluding Vande Mataram ceremony.

“It is their duty to answer the questions asked by MPs and the LOP (Leader of Opposition), but they ran away from this responsibility for the entire session,” Mr. Venugopal said. He claimed that their silence regarding issues such as the recent police action against protesting students, the alleged theft of donations at the Ayodhya Ram temple and other pressing issues exposed their “guilt”.

At a press conference in New Delhi, Congress General Secretary (Communications) Jairam Ramesh, accompanied by the party’s Deputy Leader in the Lok Sabha Gaurav Gogoi, said the session had demonstrated the strength of Opposition unity.

He recalled that the Monsoon Session of 2015 had been washed out over the Vyapam scam, which was related to irregularities with the Madhya Pradesh government’s recruitment exams, and said the latest session had again been disrupted over an issue concerning the youth. “After 11 years, again an issue related to the youth resulted in a washout,” he said. “So, nothing has changed in 11 years. There were laws made and now reels are being made, but nothing has changed.”

Mr. Ramesh listed five major successes for the Congress and the Opposition. The first, he said, was preventing the government from bringing the Constitution amendment Bill to facilitate the delimitation exercise. “They (the government) don’t have a two-thirds majority and will never get it,” he said. A two-thirds majority is required to pass constitutional amendments.

The second, he said, was the deferment of the ‘One Nation, One Election’ legislation to the Winter Session after the Opposition raised several questions and the Joint Parliamentary Committee report was not brought before the House.

The third was the failure to bring the Viksit Bharat Shiksha Adhishthan Bill, 2025, as the committee examining it could not submit its report, Mr. Ramesh said.

The fourth was the referral of the Foreign Contribution (Regulation) Amendment Bill to a joint committee, though the Congress wanted the legislation withdrawn. The fifth success, he said, was the failure to bring the Constitution amendment Bill that proposed automatic removal of a Prime Minister or Chief Minister if arrested and detained for 30 consecutive days, as the report on the measure was not ready.

Mr. Ramesh cited the passage of the Mines and Minerals (Development and Regulation) Amendment Bill, 2026 and the National Co-operative Development Corporation (Amendment) Bill, 2026 without debate as negatives for the Opposition. “But eventually somebody will go to court because these are brazenly anti-Constitutional,” he said.

The Congress communications chief said Opposition leaders belonging to the INDIA bloc met every day in the chambers of Mallikarjun Kharge, the Leader of the Opposition in Rajya Sabha, chamber and “walked together on the path we collectively decided”.

Mr. Gogoi also claimed that the government was on the back foot while the Opposition remained united. “We have seen many sessions, but have never seen the government so scared and rattled as it was this time,” he said.