As the Opposition pushed for a debate on the SIR exercise, Union Parliamentary Affairs Minister Kiren Rijiju reiterated that the government was not averse to discussing SIR or electoral reforms, but said the Opposition should not insist on setting a timeline. During the day, senior Cabinet ministers held multiple rounds of discussions, including one in Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s room in Parliament House, to finalise the format of the debate, sources said.
“The matter related to whatever you call it, Special Intensive Revision or electoral reforms, I stated before the beginning of the Winter Session that the government is not averse to taking up discussion on anything. Please give us some time while there are other businesses listed that can be taken up. The demand you have put forward has not been rejected. So, don’t presume that the government is not ready to discuss any matter. Please do not put a condition on the timeline,” Rijiju told the Rajya Sabha in the afternoon.
Though Opposition leaders walked out of the Upper House after the minister’s comments, many of them later indicated they did not want to see this session “wash out” like the last few ones. “The Opposition is not keen on disrupting the proceedings. If the government agrees to a debate and fixes the time for it, we will cooperate with the government for the session,” said a senior Congress leader.
Another Opposition MP said the protests were not as disruptive as in previous sessions. “Our protests were not vigorous. We neither held placards nor raised aggressive slogans,” said the leader. However, earlier in the day in the Lok Sabha, Opposition MPs came to the Well of the House, raising slogans like “SIR wapas lo (take back, SIR)”, forcing Speaker Om Birla to abruptly adjourn the proceedings thrice.
Apart from the Congress, which does not want to take a tough stand on the issue, it is learnt, the Trinamool Congress (TMC) and the DMK, two of the largest constituents of the Opposition INDIA bloc, have also adopted a nuanced position on whether proceedings should be held up over SIR. While both the DMK and the TMC have questioned the exercise, they do not feel it will pose much problem to them electorally, Opposition insiders said. The SP, in contrast, is much more concerned that the SIR will lead to widespread exclusion of Muslims, its key voter base, from the electoral rolls and damage its electoral prospects in UP in the 2027 Assembly polls.
“In the INDIA bloc meeting this morning, all the parties — DMK, SP, NCP (SP), and the Left — asked the Leader of the Opposition (Rahul Gandhi) to take a stand on the debate,” said a Congress leader.
The Congress’s chief whip in the Lok Sabha, Manickam Tagore, said, “We hope that the government agrees to a discussion on electoral reforms in which we can talk about the contentious SIR exercise. We want the government to agree to debates on the issues we have raised and the House to run smoothly.”
However, to assert their stand, Opposition MPs have planned a demonstration demanding the debate on electoral reforms outside the Makar Dwar of the new Parliament House on Tuesday.
The government, which wants a day-long discussion on Vande Mataram on the occasion of 150 years of its composition, has a heavy economic agenda for the Winter Session. It has listed at least nine key Bills ranging from insurance reforms to a new taxation framework, as well as the first batch of Supplementary Demands for Grants for 2025-26. Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Monday introduced three Bills: the Manipur Goods and Services Tax (Second Amendment) Bill, the Central Excise (Amendment) Bill, and the Health Security and National Security Cess Bill.
The SIR exercise in Bihar and the Opposition’s insistence on discussing it in the House had stalled proceedings in the Monsoon Session. At the time, the government rejected the Opposition’s demand saying that matters pending before the judiciary cannot be discussed on the floor of the House. The government also cited a 1988 ruling by then Lok Sabha Speaker Balram Jakhar that under the existing constitutional provisions, the House cannot comment upon the actions of the Election Commission. However, Rijiju suggested at the Idea Exchange session of The Indian Express on November 27 that if SIR had to be discussed, “the subject has to be widened, (like) a reform… We can think about it”.