Kumar Bahukhandi
Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge and Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi during the Congress’s 80th Independence Day celebrations at Indira Bhawan in New Delhi on Saturday, August 15, 2026. The two leaders stayed away from the official Independence Day ceremony at the Red Fort, prompting criticism from the BJP-Photo-PTI
In Short
- Congress cites difficulty for Kharge in reaching his allotted seat; BJP questions explanation and targets Opposition leadership
- Rahul Gandhi and Kharge, however, participate in Congress’s own Independence Day programme in New Delhi
Senior Congress leaders stay away from Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led 80th Independence Day ceremony for second consecutive year
New Delhi: Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge and Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi stayed away from the official 80th Independence Day celebrations at the Red Fort on Saturday, August 15, 2026, for the second consecutive year, triggering another political confrontation between the Congress and the BJP.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi led the national ceremony at the historic Red Fort, where he hoisted the Tricolour and addressed the nation. The programme was attended by senior constitutional functionaries, Union ministers, military and security officials and other dignitaries.
The absence of the two senior-most Congress parliamentary leaders quickly became a political issue, particularly because both had also skipped the Red Fort ceremony in 2025.
Questions Over Protocol and Seating
Kharge is Leader of Opposition in the Rajya Sabha and holds Cabinet-rank status for protocol purposes. Reports said he had been allotted a seat in the second or third row, but party sources cited difficulty in walking to the designated seating area as a reason for his absence.
Rahul Gandhi’s absence attracted particular attention because the government had confirmed ahead of this year’s ceremony that the Lok Sabha Leader of Opposition had been formally invited and would be seated according to the official Table of Precedence, immediately after Union Cabinet ministers.
The clarification was significant because Rahul’s seating position at the 2025 ceremony had itself generated controversy.
Despite their absence from the Red Fort, the two leaders were not absent from Independence Day observances altogether. Congress held its own programme at the party headquarters in New Delhi, where Kharge addressed party workers and Rahul Gandhi also participated in the celebrations.
BJP Targets Congress Leadership
The BJP seized upon their absence to question why the principal Opposition leaders had chosen not to attend the country’s main Independence Day ceremony.
BJP leader R P Singh challenged the explanation surrounding Kharge’s absence, reportedly arguing that the Congress president regularly negotiates the stairs around Parliament’s Makar Dwar and questioning why reaching his allotted place at the Red Fort should have prevented his participation.
The criticism sought to portray the absence not merely as a matter of personal convenience or protocol, but as a question about the Opposition leadership’s participation in an important national ceremony.
The Congress, however, has maintained its own Independence Day observances and its leaders used the occasion to emphasise their interpretation of patriotism, constitutionalism and the legacy of the freedom movement.
Kharge, speaking at the Congress programme, raised concerns over what he described as challenges confronting India’s constitutional values, democratic institutions and social harmony.
Rahul Gandhi separately marked the occasion by stressing that freedom carried a responsibility to uphold truth, equality, respect and fraternity.
Absence Becomes Political Issue for Second Year
The controversy nevertheless underlines the increasingly strained relationship between the government and the principal Opposition party even on occasions traditionally regarded as being above everyday political confrontation.
An Independence Day ceremony at the Red Fort is a national State function rather than a BJP event. Equally, absence from the ceremony does not by itself mean that a political leader has refused to observe Independence Day — particularly when the leaders concerned participated in separate Independence Day programmes.
That distinction is important in reporting the controversy.
The political question raised by the BJP is therefore about whether the Leaders of Opposition in the two Houses should have attended the principal national ceremony despite any disagreement over protocol or logistical inconvenience.
For the Congress, meanwhile, its separate celebrations provided a platform to commemorate the freedom struggle while simultaneously presenting its own political message on democracy and constitutional values.
With Rahul Gandhi and Kharge now staying away from the Red Fort ceremony for a second consecutive year, however, what might otherwise have been treated as an individual absence has inevitably become part of the larger political debate over relations between the government and Opposition
