Rahul Gandhi Red Fort seating row: BJP loses the courtesy war

The ministry of defence, which is in charge of the Red Fort and responsible for seating arrangements, is reported to have informally told media outlets that the leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha, Congress MP Rahul Gandhi, was seated in the second last row at the 78th Independence Day function because Olympic medal winners were seated in the front row.

While the LOP sat through Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s address in his designated seat, the front row was occupied by several Union ministers like Nirmala Sitharaman, Amit Shah, S. Jaishankar and Shivraj Singh Chouhan, who too figure seventh in the table of precedence. None of them had the courtesy to vacate a seat for the LOP, though.

It is not clear if the change was communicated to the LOP by the ministry. Till Thursday evening, there was no official clarification issued by the ministry either. It is also not clear why an additional chair could not be placed in the front row and why one of the cabinet ministers could not be seated in the second row; or indeed why the LOP could not be seated in the second row.

While TV channels initially claimed that Gandhi was given a seat in the front row but decided to sit at the back, the suggestion was officially refuted by the Congress.

This was the first time in 10 years that a leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha attended the Independence Day function, since there was no LOP in the House all this years, given that no opposition party secured 10 per cent of Lok Sabha seats in 2014 and 2019, the minimum required to elect an LOP.

Gandhi arrived at Red Fort in a white kurta-pyjama and sat in the designated second-last row for VIPs next to Gurjant Singh, one of the members of the Olympic hockey team, which won the bronze medal in Paris. Indian athletes won one silver and five bronze medals at the Paris Olympics in all.  

The first six places in the table of precedence are occupied by the President, vice-president, prime Minister, deputy prime minister if any, chief justice of India and the speaker of the Lok Sabha. Ambassadors, judges of the Supreme Court, chairperson of the Union Public Service Commission, chief election commissioner, comptroller & auditor general of India, deputy chairman of the Rajya Sabha, and the attorney-general are lower down the table after the Union ministers and LOP.

Traditionally, the LOP, who holds a position equivalent to a cabinet minister, is allocated a seat in the front row. The unusual seating arrangement this year was noticed and raised questions about protocol. Many felt it was a deliberate insult.

Former Union health secretary Sujata K. Rao posted on social media from Hyderabad, “As per order of precedence the LOP is at no. 7. Rahul Gandhi on fifth or second last row is certainly a deliberate wrong doing as on such occasions the order of precedence is strictly followed. It appears like a deliberate attempt to insult. Sad.”

Congress spokesperson Supriya Shrinate fumed in a video statement on X, “It is futile to expect big things from small-minded people. Narendra Modi certainly showed his frustration by making Leader of the Opposition Rahul Gandhi sit in the fifth row during the Independence Day celebrations, but this does not make any difference to Rahul Gandhi”. Another Congress spokesperson Pawan Khera asked, “Is the defence minister taking revenge for getting cornered by Rahul ji on his Agniveer lies? Or is it the typical small mindedness of the PMO?”  

Netizens and Congress leaders were quick to point out that BJP leaders, when in opposition, were always seated in the first or second row, even when the BJP had just two members in the Lok Sabha.

Congress leader Gurdeep Singh Sappal, a permanent invitee to the Congress Working Committee, posted that the LOP enjoyed a special position in a parliamentary democracy. Sappal, who headed Rajya Sabha TV and was associated with the Indian Parliament for 14 years, recalled that he had seen BJP leaders Lal Krishna Advani, Jaswant Singh, Sushma Swaraj and Arun Jaitley, as leaders of the opposition in one of the Houses, given precedence over cabinet ministers.