Rahul Gandhi uninterested in Parliament; ‘tutored by NGOs’ on revival of Congress: Kiren Rijiju

Kiren Rijiju claims Rahul Gandhi is uninterested in Parliament, influenced by NGOs, while asserting no further efforts will placate Congress.

Parliamentary Affairs Minister Kiren Rijiju on Monday (February 16, 2026) claimed that Congress leader Rahul Gandhi is not interested in the smooth functioning of Parliament, and some NGOs have tutored him that "good days" will come for his party and that is why he has been stalling the House.

Mr. Rijiju also said that the government is not going to take any more extra steps to "placate" the Congress to defuse the situation in Parliament as he had made "many attempts" so that the House functions properly, but in vain.

"Rahul Gandhi is not interested in running the House. He is interested in making issues. Rahul Gandhi was tutored by some NGOs that your days will come. But their days won't come. In the next elections, their tally (in the Lok Sabha) will further go down," he told PTI in an interview in Tawang, in Arunachal Pradesh.

Mr. Rijiju, who is on a visit to his Lok Sabha constituency Arunachal West, said the ruling alliance has no problem with the Opposition stalling the House as he had made many attempts to defuse the situation, including speaking to senior Congress leader K.C. Venugopal and a few others.

"We are not going to do anything extra to placate the Congress. The Congress is frustrated because the party is losing election after election. They are desperate to change the situation," he said.

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