Om Birla to host BRICS lawmakers from 25 October, with Modi to open the forum

Parliament will host lawmakers from BRICS countries next week, when the 12th BRICS Parliamentary Forum opens in the Central Hall of Samvidhan Sadan, the old Parliament building in New Delhi.

The Lok Sabha Secretariat has said the meeting will run for three days from Sunday, 25 October, and that Prime Minister Narendra Modi will inaugurate it on Monday, 26 October. Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla is to chair the forum, which will close with the adoption of a joint statement.

The forum is the legislative counterpart of the BRICS leaders’ summits and comes about a month after India hosted the BRICS Summit. Presiding officers, parliamentary leaders and delegates from member and partner countries are expected. The Secretariat describes the forum as a platform for member parliaments to align their legislative agendas, encourage democratic dialogue and speak for the Global South. India last hosted a gathering of this kind in October 2023, when it held the ninth G20 Parliamentary Speakers’ Summit.

What is on the table

Officials said in September that the meeting would be built around the theme “Fostering Parliaments for people-centric development”, with four high-level plenary sessions and a focus on artificial intelligence and digital technology. Before the formal sessions begin, secretaries of the visiting delegations will work on the text of the joint declaration.

The special session question

The forum has become part of a wider calculation about Parliament’s calendar. Government sources say the Centre is considering a special session later this month to bring constitutional amendment bills on delimitation and women’s reservation, and that the dates could be fitted around the BRICS meeting with about a week’s notice to MPs.

The Monsoon Session ended on 13 August but has not been prorogued, which leaves room for a special sitting. The government is said to be reaching out to the DMK, which left the INDIA bloc after the Tamil Nadu elections, and to smaller opposition parties.

The numbers are the hard part. A constitutional amendment needs a special majority, and the NDA falls short of two-thirds in the Lok Sabha on its own. The last attempt, the Constitution (131st Amendment) Bill, which would have raised the cap on Lok Sabha seats to 850, won 298 votes to 230 on 17 April, short of the two-thirds it needed. That bill would also have let Parliament decide by law when to redraw constituencies and which census to use.

The government has not confirmed that a session will be held, and no dates have been announced.