New Delhi: The Congress Monday accused the Modi government of violating established protocol after Leaders of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha, Rahul Gandhi and Mallikarjun Kharge, were made to sit in the third row of the VIP enclosure at the Republic Day Parade on Delhi’s Kartavya Path.
Calling it a deliberate slight, the party said the seating arrangement departed from long-standing convention under which Leaders of the Opposition are accorded front-row seating alongside cabinet ministers and other constitutional dignitaries.
Several leaders of the opposition party expressed their anger over the issue, pointing out, with photographs, that in the past, when the Congress was the ruling party at the Centre, opposition leaders were always seated in the front row.
“Does such treatment of the Leader of the Opposition in the country meet the standards of any decorum, tradition, and protocol? This only reveals the frustration of a government plagued by an inferiority complex,” Congress general secretary Randeep Singh Surjewala wrote on X.
क्या देश के विपक्ष के नेता के साथ ऐसा व्यवहार किसी मर्यादा, परंपरा और प्रोटोकॉल के मापदंड पर खरा उतरता है ?
ये केवल हीन भावना से ग्रस्त सरकार की कुंठा दिखाता है ।
प्रजातंत्र में मतभेद रहेंगे मगर श्री @RahulGandhi के साथ किया जाने वाला ये व्यवहार अस्वीकार्य है। pic.twitter.com/b4mdU9BU7G
— Randeep Singh Surjewala (@rssurjewala) January 26, 2026
This is not the first time a political row has erupted over the perceived slight to Rahul at official events. During the 2024 Independence Day ceremony at the Red Fort, the seat designated for Rahul was in the fifth row, alongside a group of sportspersons who had participated in the Paris Olympics.
The Congress had then called it an affront to democratic traditions and the people of India. According to the Table of Precedence protocol list, the Leaders of Opposition in the Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha are to be seated at par with cabinet ministers, chief ministers, and even former prime ministers.
In 2018, too, the Congress had lashed out at the Modi government after Rahul, then serving as party president, was allotted a sixth-row seat at the Republic Day celebrations.
On Monday, several Congress functionaries also posted photographs showing BJP leaders L K Advani, Sushma Swaraj, and Arun Jaitley—who served as Leaders of the Opposition during the Congress-led UPA years—occupying front-row seats during Republic Day Parades held then.
Sharing one such photograph on social media, Congress MP and Lok Sabha whip Manickam Tagore wrote, “This was in 2014 — look at where L K Advani ji was seated then. Why this protocol mess-up now? Is it because Modi and Shah want to insult Kharge ji and Rahul ji? Leaders of the Opposition cannot be insulted like this, especially on Republic Day.”
This was in 2014—look at where LK Advani ji was seated then.
Why this protocol mess-up now?
Is it because Modi and Shah want to insult Kharge ji and Rahul ji?
Leaders of the Opposition cannot be insulted like this, especially on Republic Day.#RepublicDay https://t.co/1zUMsILyDX pic.twitter.com/tPOlpaGKTG
— Manickam Tagore .B🇮🇳மாணிக்கம் தாகூர்.ப (@manickamtagore) January 26, 2026
Congress Rajya Sabha MP Vivek Tankha also issued a statement criticising the seating arrangement, saying that expecting the ruling dispensation to treat its political opponents with grace was perhaps an impossibility.
“Our country has a Constitution under which the Opposition was always treated with respect. Mallikarjun Kharge and Rahul Gandhi occupy a special position in national politics. By making them sit in the back, you are insulting the country and its constitutional institutions,” Tankha said.
(Edited by Varnika Dhawan)
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