New Delhi, Nov. 3 -- India just witnessed a remarkable and innovative democratic initiative-creative, constructive, and unmistakably political-a parliamentary-style debate held outside the precincts of the hallowed institution itself.

On Saturday, 31 October 2026, the residence of Mallikarjun Kharge, Congress party president and Leader of Opposition in the Rajya Sabha, Parliament's upper house, was arranged - with remarkable hack - to resemble the old Lok Sabha chamber, with desks and chairs set out in rows and a printed backdrop of the Speaker's wall behind the presiding chair of the lower house.

Former Lok Sabha Speaker Meira Kumar occupied that chair. Before her sat representatives of 20 INDIA bloc opposition parties, along with civi...