Rohit Kumar
NEW DELHI, Feb 12: In a move that may have serious political repercussions, a BJP Member of the Lok Sabha, Nishikant Dubey on Thursday initiated a formal process for a “substantive motion” in the Lok Sabha against Leader of Opposition Rahul Gandhi, which can theoretically lead to Gandhi’s expulsion by majority vote.
Giving notice for the motion, Dubey sought an inquiry by a parliamentary panel into the Congress leader’s “continuous misdeeds for destabilizing the country,” and demanded that Gandhi be expelled as an MP, plus be banned from elections for the rest of his life.
Dubey’s move came amid acrimonious exchanges between Rahul Gandhi and BJP MPs over several controversial issues, including the alleged circulation of former army chief General MM Naravane’s unpublished book. On Wednesday, Mr Gandhi had aimed directly at Union Minister Hardeep Singh Puri as he made allegations against the former diplomat over the Epstein Files disclosures.
In his notice, Dubey accused Rahul Gandhi of being “a major constituent of the Thuggery Gang to de-stabilise India from within.” He expressedly objected to Rahul Gandhi’s speech in the Lok Sabha’s ongoing budget session in which the Congress MP referred to former Indian Army chief General MM Naravane’s unpublished book.
Gandhi has claimed that Gen Naravane’s book “exposes” PM Narendra Modi’s “shirking of responsibility” during the border tension with China in 2020. Dubey said this book-related claim was made by Gandhi with an “ulterior motive defaming the Indian Army vis-a-vis the Ministry of Defense along with shamefully involving the Prime Minister.”
After filing paperwork to initiate action against Rahul Gandhi, Dubey said the Congress MP seems to be connected to foreign powers. “Who is funding Rahul Gandhi, whose motive is to destroy the nation? How did he get the unpublished book? The Lok Sabha must reject Rahul Gandhi’s membership,” Dubey said.
“This is not that for the first time that Shri Rahul Gandhi has made efforts to create controversy with the objective of defaming the government – be it defence, finance, commerce, external affairs – but Shri Rahul Gandhi has the uncanny knack of fomenting the public sentiments by raising unsubstantiated and unethical aspects in parliament as well as other public fora,” Dubey said in the notice.
“The genesis of such recalcitrant attitude of Shri Rahul Gandhi is his being an active conduit of ‘Soros Foundation’, which is notorious, world-wide, in de-stabilizing various countries for the benefit of their client states. Shri Rahul Gandhi, in his speech on 11 February, 2026 has, referred to various Indian corporates and painted a distorted picture with an attempt to depict that our banking system has collapsed due to their connivance with big business houses,” the notice. said. “All these attempts of Shri Rahul Gandhi are nothing else but an attempt to destabilize our country from within – by way of masquerading in the coveted post of Leader of Opposition.”
Gen Naravane’s “Four Stars of Destiny” is pending approval from the Ministry of Defense with the MoD since 2023, though he has not disputed Gandhi’s and others’ claims being made with reference to what he has written. Rahul Gandhi recently showed a printed copy of the book; and later Delhi Police filed a case over its PDF version’s online circulation as it’s not been duly approved for publication.
There are historical precedents of substantive motions being used to expel members, such as the 2005 cash-for-questions case whereby at least 10 LS members were expelled after a parliamentary probe committee found them guilty of taking money to raise specific queries.
More recently, Trinamool Congress MP Mahua Moitra, a prominent face of the national Opposition, was expelled by a House vote on such a motion, after a Parliamentary Ethics Committee found her guilty of a similar cash-for-question scandal in 2023. Moitra later won the same Krishnanagar LS seat in West Bengal in the 2024 election, and returned to the House. The central allegations against her, as well as her challenge against the expulsion, are in the court now.
The Lok Sabha has the power to expel its members for serious misconduct or actions that damage the dignity of Parliament. This flows from Article 105 of the Constitution and parliamentary rules read together.
Technically, the instrument of substantive motion is a self-contained, independent proposal used to express the decision or opinion of the House on significant matters. Substantive is a types of motion, and major motions such as for removal of a judge, impeachment of President, or a no-confidence motion are substantive in nature, a formal proposal placed before the House for discussion and decision. If admitted by the speaker, it entails a debate followed by a compulsory vote.
Previously, Congress and the Opposition have given notices for a no-confidence motion against the then Vice President and Rajya Sabha chairman Jagdeep Dhankhar and now the Speaker Om Birla. Since clear parliamentary majority is with the BJP-led NDA, which is why Rahul Gandhi stares at possible expulsion.
A substantive motion is different from a breach-of-privilege notice or motion, and is usually considered more directly actionable. The BJP was earlier considering a privilege motion against Rahul Gandhi, as was confirmed by parliamentary affairs minister Kiren Rijiju. Nishikant Dubey later said a substantive motion will now seek that not only Gandhi be expelled but also be banned from contesting elections.
Sources said the government would not move a privilege motion. Hardeep Puri would “respond himself” to the allegations. Puri has already refuted the allegations leveled by Mr Gandhi. A separate notice under Rule 380 was submitted by BJP chief whip Sanjay Jaiswal seeking expunge of at least four lines from Gandhi’s speech on Wednesday.
Rahul Gandhi, when asked about the BJP’s moves, snapped at the media, saying they were blindly following BJP directives. “Is that the code word for today? Tell me the code word in advance. Yesterday it was ‘authenticate’, and today it is ‘privilege motion’,” he said, responding to reporters outside Parliament.
“You are not yet totally employed by the BJP. At least try to do a little bit of objective stuff… You have a responsibility to be objective. You can’t just take a word they give you… Every day, run your whole show on that. You are doing a disservice to this country,” he said.
Congress general secretary KC Venugopal said, “We are not bothered about any motions; and if you want to hang us, we are ready for that also.” He lashed out at the government over some of Gandhi’s remarks in the House being expunged from the records on Wednesday. He said that was why “we took an extreme position” to submit a notice for no-confidence motion for removal of Om Birla as Lok Sabha speaker. “We have not been getting justice from the (Lok Sabha) chair,” Venugopal said,
“Whatever Rahul ji said is completely expunged from the records. Whatever (finance minister) Nirmala Sitharaman said, the same remarks were included in the records. The government has double standards… This Parliament is running for the government, not for the opposition,” the MP said.
Venugopal also mentioned the instance when Rahul Gandhi had lost his membership three years ago, only to get it back. In March 2023, Gandhi was disqualified as MP, following his sentencing by a court in Surat, Gujarat, to two-year imprisonment for having “defamed” the Modi surname and the BJP.
By August 2023, the Supreme Court stayed his conviction, which led to his formal reinstatement by the Lok Sabha secretariat within days. “What happened afterwards was that people ensured his victory with more votes compared to that of Modi ji… We will continue to tell the truth in Parliament,” Venugopal said.
In the 2024 election, Rahul Gandhi won two seats — Rae Bareli in UP and Wayanad in Kerala, retaining the former as he could only keep one as per rules. His sister Priyanka Gandhi Vadra entered the Lok Sabha in the Wayanad LS bypoll. Priyanka also commented on actions against her brother. “They will do FIR, cases and whatnot against Rahul Gandhi; but nothing is going to affect him,” she said.
Congress MP Renuka Chaudhary, coming to Rahul Gandhi’s defence, took swipes at Dubey as someone who wanted to become a Union minister. “Nishikant Dubey wants to become a minister in the government, which is why he is talking about canceling Rahul Gandhi’s membership. This makes no sense,” Chaudhary said. She added that at one point there was talk of pushing a privilege motion against her over bringing her dog to parliament grounds. “Do BJP MPs understand what a privilege motion is?” she said.
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