Union parliamentary affairs minister Kiren Rijiju criticized Congress lawmaker Pawan Khera on Tuesday for what he described as an ‘indecent’ remark regarding his swimming. Rijiju announced plans to report Khera’s alleged ‘indiscipline conduct’ to Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma.
Rijiju Challenges Rahul Gandhi to a Swim
In a recent exchange, Union Minister Kiren Rijiju posted a video of himself swimming in a river in Arunachal Pradesh. He used this opportunity to challenge senior Congress leader Rahul Gandhi to join him in the activity. This challenge comes just days after Rijiju’s video was shared, adding a personal touch to the ongoing political discourse between the two leaders.
He wrote that Rijiju “can’t even go for a half-naked swim without invoking Rahul Gandhi. The swim challenge builds on a longer fitness exchange between Rijiju and Gandhi. Gandhi referred to that conversation again in the Lok Sabha during the Budget session in February, using jiu-jitsu moves as a political analogy. Rijiju’s invocation of Himanta Biswa Sarma is not incidental. Khera and the Assam chief minister have a running history that predates this swim spat by years. The two statements have kept the exchange confined to social media so far, with neither the Congress nor the BJP issuing a formal party position.
In December 2025, Rijiju shared a video of a Parliament conversation with Gandhi and said the discussion was only about fitness, with Gandhi asking about his exercise routine and inviting him to train together. Khera was arrested by Assam Police in February 2023 over remarks he made about Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
Khera had mocked the video as a “half-naked swim,” suggesting it showed how deeply Gandhi has unsettled the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). Sarma said at the time that Khera had tendered an unconditional apology but added that “the majesty of law shall always prevail,” and that police would take the matter to its “logical conclusion.
Rijiju responded by questioning Khera’s standing to make the remark, pointing to his own record of contesting eigth Lok Sabha elections against Khera’s single nominated term in the Rajya Sabha. Rijiju went on to explain why he had reacted at all. He closed by asking Khera to stop resorting to abusive language.
He said his swim was meant to inspire people around him and had nothing to do with Gandhi. He said he swims with villagers in Arunachal Pradesh purely to inspire the people around him, and that Gandhi does not figure in his thinking while he is doing so. He added that he only responded after Congress supporters began drawing comparisons between his swimming and Gandhi’s, calling himself a natural “khiladi” in the region’s rivers who has never needed training for such activities.
