Parliament Budget session 2025 live: Rahul Gandhi's India-China remark draws ire from BJP

Reacting to Rahul Gandhi's remarks on the appointment process of the Election Commissioner, Assam chief minister Himanta Biswa Sarma said that the Leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha's statement is "ironic, given that during Congress rule, appointments were made solely by the ruling government without any transparency".

"If the Congress truly believed in democratic integrity, why didn’t they implement these reforms in their decades of power? This hypocrisy highlights their political posturing—preaching transparency now after years of opaque governance. The people of India can no longer be misled by such double standards. Practice what you preach before demanding trust," he said in a post on X.

Congress MP Shashi Tharoor said, "He (Lok Sabha LoP Rahul Gandhi) specifically talked about the kinds of challenges that India needs to rise to if want to become a more developed nation, if we want to keep our youth employed. He talked about the importance of production, he talked about the importance of participation of all sections of society. He also raised some serious questions about the fairness and integrity of the electoral process in order to protect the Constitution. It was a totally different approach to perhaps what may were expecting. Therefore, it has given people a lot to think about."

Tharoor further said that it was good that Prime Minister Narendra Modi was present in the House at the time of Rahul's speech.

"I think that the arguments that he made will deserve further reflection and response form the Government which is precisely what the LoP should be doing," he told ANI.

The Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC) on Waqf Amendment Bill headed by Sh. Jagdambika Pal submitted its report to Lok Sabha Speaker Sh. Om Birla in Parliament House today.

Shiv Sena MP Shrikant Shinde reacted to Rahul Gandhi's remarks on Maharashtra election results and said, "Like always, he was trying to mislead everyone. He started on a good note, but raising questions over Maharashtra election results, election commission and judiciary... He should not stoop to this low."

Congress general secretary KC Venugopal said, "One of the historic speeches of the Parliament. It was a visionary statement from Rahul Gandhi. Anyone can blame but everyone saw how he presented the issue of unemployment and caste census... Democracy is in danger in this country... The government has to clarify the reason behind removing the CJI from the selection body of the Election Commission... It was one the best speeches of the Parliament."

Congress MP and Lok Sabha LoP Rahul Gandhi slammed the appointment process of Election Commissioner.

He said, The rules have been changed. The Election Commissioner used to be chosen by the Prime Minister, Leader of Opposition and the Chief Justice. The Chief Justice was removed from that committee. This is a question to the Prime Minister, why was the Chief Justice removed from the committee?"

"Now in a few days, I'm going to go to the meeting. It will be PM Narendra Modi, Amit Shah and me, 2-1. Why even am I going to the meeting? I am only going there to certify what Modi ji and Amit Shah are going to say...Just prior to Lok Sabha, the Election Commissioner was changed and 2 new Election Commissioners were placed. We know that the election dates were changed," he added.

Appreciating her brother and Leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi's speech, Congress MP Priyanka Gandhi said, "A speech of a leader should be like this only where he lays down a vision for the country. I really liked his speech."

Rahul Gandhi in Lok Sabha said, "We are saying to the Election Commission, please give us the names and addresses and polling booths of all the voters in the Lok Sabha and all the voters in the Vidhan Sabha Saba, so we can calculate who these new voters are."

"Interestingly the new voters are mostly in the constituencies that the BJP has swept. I am still not making an allegation. I am saying on the Floor of the House that the Election Commission has to give the data... I am very confident that the Election Commission will not give us this information," he added.

Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha cited that almost 90 per cent of the population in Telangana is either Dalit, Adivasi or backward or minority, saying that he is convinced that the story is the same across the country.

"The OBC population of the country is not 1 less than 50%...If we look at the largest corporates in this country, none of them are owned by OBCs, Dalits or Tribals...Central to any new development paradigm is the architecture of a new paradigm and that architecture of the new paradigm can only be built once the caste sensus is placed on the table," he added.

Rahul further said, "There are OBC, Dalit and Adivasi MPs in the BJP. Remember, OBCs have 50% of the population and you have absolutely no power. I know that you're sitting there and you cannot even open your mouth. That is the truth of the country."

Raising the book of Constitution in the Lok Sabha, Rahul Gandhi said, "I want to bring to the notice of this House some data, some information about the Maharashtra elections. Between the Lok Sabha election which the INDIA Alliance won and the Vidhan Sabha election, the voting population of Himachal Pradesh was added to the voter roll of Maharashtra, meaning the entire population of Himachal Pradesh was added to voter rolls of Maharashtra."

He further said that "almost 70 lakh new voters suddenly arrived between Lok Sabha and Vidhan Sabha elections".

In Lok Sabha, LoP Rahul Gandhi said, "I remember before the elections, all of you (BJP) were saying '400 Paar' and you were saying you would change this (referring to Constitution). And then I was glad to see that the Prime Minister walked in and then was forced to bow his head in front of the Constitution. It was a moment of pride for all Congress people that we had explained to the Prime Minister and to the whole country that no force will dare touch this."

"I know that the RSS has never accepted this. Mohan Bhagwat has said that India didn't get independence in 1947. He has said that this is meaningless. We will never let your dream come true. This Constitution is going to rule India always," he added.

Rahul Gandhi raked up the issue of voter roll in the Maharashtra elections and said that the Opposition "knows that names were added to the list"

Union minister Kiren Rijiju objected to Rahul Gandhi's remarks on PM Modi over the inaugural ceremony of US president Donald Trump.

"Leader of Opposition cannot make such serious unsubstantial statement. This is related to the relation between two countries and he is making an unverified statement about the invitation of the Prime Minister of our country," Rijiju said.

"When we talk to the United States, we would not send our foreign minister to invite our Prime Minister to his coronation...Because if we had a production system and if we were working on these technologies, the American President would come here and invite the Prime Minister," Rahul Gandhi said.

Rahul Gandhi pressed in the Lok Sabha that India needs to be ahead in terms of electronics, automobile, technological productions.

Rahul Gandhi wondered in Lok Sabha as to how the usage of AI would be in caste census, to file and account for tribals, SC/STs and Adivasis.

Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi said, "Any country basically organizes two things, you can organize consumption and then you can organize production. The modern way of saying organizing consumption is services. The modern way of saying organizing production is manufacturing, but there is more to production than simply manufacturing. We have as a country failed in organizing production."

"We have excellent companies that try to organize production...essentially what we have done is we have handed over the organization of production to the Chinese," he added.

Rahul further said, "This mobile phone, even though we are saying we make this mobile phone in India, that is not a fact. This phone is not made in India. This phone is assembled in India. All the components of this phone are made in China...we are paying a tax to China."

"China has at least a 10 year lead on India in this space. China has been working on batteries, robots, motors, optics for the last 10 years and we are behind," Rahul Gandhi said in Lok Sabha.

He further said, "We would ensure that our banking system is not captured by 2-3 companies that basically do not allow you to build a production system. But our banking system is open, dynamic and accessible to small and medium businesses and to millions and millions of entrepreneurs who want to take part in this revolution."

Rahul Gandhi in Lok Sabha said, "People talk about AI, but it's important to understand that AI on its own is absolutely meaningless because AI operates on top of data. Without data, AI means nothing. And if we look at data today, there is one thing which is very clear."

"Every single piece of data that comes out of the production system in the world. The data that was used to make this phone, the data that is used to make electric cars. The data that is used to make basically all electronics on the planet today is owned by China. And the consumption data is owned by the United States," he added.

Rahul Gandhi said that Chinese forces are present in our nation because ‘Make in India’ failed and our country “refuses to produce”.

Rahul Gandhi said that the result of Make in India shows that "manufacturing fell from 15.3% of GDP in 2014 to 12.6% of GDP today, which is the lowest share of manufacturing in 60 year".

"I am not blaming the Prime Minister, it would not be fair to say that he did not try. I could say that the Prime Minister tried but he failed," he added.

Rahul Gandhi, in Lok Sabha, said, “India has to focus completely on production, meanwhile, social tension is on the rise in India."

As Rahul Gandhi made his statements in the Lok Sabha, Union minister Kiren Rijiju and leaders of the treasury side expressed objection to his remarks on the country and technology, saying that he should take the discussion seriously.

Lok Sabha LoP Rahul Gandhi said, "We have as a country failed in organising production and handed it over to the Chinese."

Rahul Gandhi though appreciated PM Modi's 'Make in India' as a good idea, conceptually but, he said that "it is clear that he failed".